COP27: UN chief tells climate summit, Cooperate or perish
Sharm El Sheikh, Nov.7 (BNA): With the world on "a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator,″ the United Nations chief on Monday told dozens of leaders to "cooperate or perish," on avoiding further climate catastrophe.
He was not the only one preaching with tones of fire and brimstone, alternating with pathos and tragedy, trying to shake up the world’s sense of urgency at this year’s annual U.N. climate conference. "Choose life over death," former U.S. Vice President Al Gore urged. "It is not time for moral cowardice."
"Our people on this Earth deserve better. "I don’t need to repeat the horror and the devastation wrecked upon this Earth over the course of the last twelve months since we met in Glasgow," said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
"Whether the apocalyptic floods in Pakistan or the heat waves from Europe to China or indeed in the last few days in my own region, the devastation caused in Belize by Tropical Storm Lisa or the torrential floods a few days ago in St. Lucia."
Ahead of this year’s conference, known as COP27, leaders and experts have been ringing alarm bells that time is fast running out to avert catastrophic rises in temperature.
More than 100 world leaders will speak over the next few days at the gathering in Egypt, most from developing countries.
Much of their focus will be on telling their stories of being devastated by climate disasters, culminating Tuesday with a speech by Prime Minister Muhammad Sharif of Pakistan, where summer floods at least $40 billion in damage and displaced millions of people.
"Is it not high time to put an end to all this suffering," the summit’s host, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, told his fellow leaders. "Climate change will never stop without our intervention... Our time here is limited and we must use every second that we have."
He called for a new pact between rich and poor countries to make deeper cuts in emissions with financial help and phasing out of coal in rich nations by 2030 and elsewhere by 2040.
He called on the United States and China the two biggest economies to especially work together on climate, something they used to do until the last few years.
"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish," Guterres said. "It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact."
Guterres insisted, "Today’s urgent crises cannot be an excuse for backsliding or greenwashing."
