Egypt calls for 'reality check' in climate talks

BONN, June 22 (AFP): Egypt hopes to jump-start the action needed to face a warming world when it takes the presidency of major UN climate talks in November, but warns that countries need a "reality check" as progress stalls.
Presiding over the inflection point when a decades-long United Nations climate process switches from negotiation to "implementation", Egypt has set a high bar for its leadership of this year's COP27 climate summit.
But the challenge of maintaining international momentum on climate change has been made even harder as the world faces a catalogue of challenges, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and spiralling food, energy and economic crises.
"Because of the geopolitical situation, climate change is being pushed back," said Ambassador Mohamed Nasr at a meeting in the German city of Bonn meant to lay the groundwork for the Egyptian conference.
"We are facing a big challenge."
Outgoing UN climate leader Patricia Espinosa had told delegates that when global leaders gather in Sharm el-Sheikh in November the world will "look nothing like" it did during the climate talks in Glasgow last year.
The international community has agreed that climate change poses an existential threat to human systems and the natural world.
But action to cut carbon pollution and prepare for the accelerating impacts is lagging, as is support for vulnerable countries confronting the ravages of a changing climate.
"It's time to start the reality check. We have been planning and planning," said Nasr. Now the question must be: "Is it delivering on the ground or not?"
Nasr said that while Egypt's presidency of the conference would have "African flavour and African vision", it would remain resolutely international in focus.
Added to the geopolitical crises are the surging frustrations of vulnerable nations least responsible for climate change over a lack of funding from rich polluters to help them cope with a warming world.
A promise of $100 billion a year from 2020 is still not met.
Another flashpoint is "loss and damage", UN speak for climate damages already incurred. Developing countries have called for a separate financing facility but have only got a "dialogue" instead.
The issue dominated the Bonn talks last week and with little resolved looks likely to be a major theme at COP27 as developing countries push to get it on the agenda.
"It is not what we hoped for," said Nasr.
He said the historic 2015 Paris Agreement was a "very delicate balance" between pushing ever-more ambitious action on emissions reductions alongside work to help countries prepare for future impacts and deal with damages.
While countries have ramped up ambitions -- if not action -- to meet the Paris goal of capping warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, he said the other elements have yet to be afforded the same level of urgency.
"We need to give assurances to the big constituency of developing countries that their priorities are being dealt with on the same level," said Nasr.