Meanwhile, Egypt will realize that it cannot hold such an important international conference without its terrible human rights record being brought to the fore. Here are some highlights from day two: The most important stories on the planet. Get all the week’s environmental news – the good, the bad and the must-haves Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has urged the global North to follow the EU’s lead in committing climate finance to the global South. A report by renowned climate economist Nicholas Stern showed that $2 trillion a year (£1.75 trillion) would be needed by developing countries (excluding China) by 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the impacts of climate collapse. However, civil society climate experts cited “America’s long-standing game plan of denial, delay and deception” when it comes to loss and damage funds. In one such stark example, Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, said his country needed more than $30 billion for flood relief “despite very low carbon footprints.” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley celebrated the loss and damage being added to the Cop27 agenda. The family of jailed British-Egyptian hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah have expressed fears that Egyptian officials may be torturing him behind closed doors through force-feeding. A pro-government Egyptian MP confronted Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, outside the conference. Abd el-Fattah’s release has become the defining issue for British-Egyptian relations, said former British ambassador to Egypt John Casson. For the first time in years, Egypt has unblocked access to the Human Rights Watch website, a day after the Guardian described how Cop27 representatives were unable to access it. A UN group set up to crack down on the greenwashing of net zero commitments by industry and government has called for “red lines” to stop support for new fossil fuel exploration and the overuse of carbon offsets. Tuvalu has become the first country to use United Nations climate talks to call for an international treaty on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels, which would phase out the use of coal, oil and natural gas. Temperatures in Ireland were so mild this fall that trees produced new growth before they shed their leaves, according to Irish Taoist historian Micheál Martin.
