Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
200 countries to take part, global warming tops summit’s agenda
SHARM EL SHEIKH/SHANGHAI: Leaders buffeted by the geopolitical crosswinds or war and economic turmoil meet in Egypt at a climate summit tasked with taming the terrifying juggernaut of global warming.
Expectations are running high in a world justifiably anxious about its climate-addled future as deadly floods, heat waves and storms across the planet track with worst-case climate scenarios.
The November 6-18 gathering of nearly 200 nations in Sharm el
Sheikh will be dominated by the growing need of virtually blameless poor nations for money to cope not just with future impacts, but those already claiming lives and devastating economies.
Without a “historic pact” bridging the North-South divide, “we will be doomed, because we need to reduce emissions, both in the developed countries and emerging economies”, UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Thursday.
More than 120 world leaders will attend this year’s UN climate talks and requests by environmental activists to stage a rally during the event would be responded to “positively”, host Egypt has said.
China-US rift
Climate change diplomacy between China and the US cannot be separated from broader political tensions between the two sides, and Washington must take responsibility for the breakdown in talks, China’s foreign ministry has said.
Agreements and joint declarations by Beijing and Washington helped drive through the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015, but China suspended all bilateral discussions in August following the visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims. “China-US climate cooperation cannot be separated from the broad climate of bilateral ties,” the foreign ministry spokesperson added, noting that Pelosi’s “serious breach of Chinese sovereignty” in Taiwan had left China with no choice but to suspend the talks.