Cop27 news in brief
UK pledges support to ramp up offshore wind energy
Nine countries including the UK have joined an organisation pledging to ramp up offshore wind production to tackle the energy and climate crisis.
Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and the US have joined the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (Gowa) at Cop27, to work together to remove barriers to the development of offshore wind.
The alliance has been initiated by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), Denmark, and the Global Wind Energy Council and will bring together governments, the private sector, and international organisations to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind power, Gowa claims.
Both Irena and the International Energy Agency expect that offshore wind capacity will need to exceed 2,000GW in 2050, from just over 60GW today, in order to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C and achieve net zero.
Pakistan flood survivors urge more climate compensation
The emergence of “loss and damage” funding as a key issue at Cop27 has pleased attendees to the summit – especially those from flood-hit Pakistan.
Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy as Climate Action Network International, says that while the next two weeks will be focused on the shape and financing of the fund, the principle of rich countries owing money to poor communities is what matters. “It is time for the world to understand that our actions and inaction have repercussions. We are paying today because of our inaction in the past”. he said.
Farooq Sayyad, a 22-year-old student from Pakistan’s impoverished Balochistan province, who is attending the UN climate summit for the first time, shares that his community is still living underwater from the massive flooding in August. “We are here to tell the world what people in our areas are going through, our houses are still underwater and our lives have not gone back to normal since the flooding hit. It’s going to take us years to recover.”
Tuvalu leads calls for treaty to phase out fossil fuels
The Polynesian island state of Tuvalu has joined Vanuatu to call for an international treaty to phase out the use of fossil fuels.
“The warming seas are starting to swallow our lands – inch by inch,” said the country’s prime minister, Kausea Natano, on a call to the climate summit. “But the world’s addiction to oil, gas and coal can’t sink our dreams under the waves.”
Tuvalu is the first nation at Cop27 and only the second country in the world to call for what is formally known as the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. It follows Vanuatu, the Pacific island state, that called for a treaty at the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
The proposed treaty is backed by more than 70 cities around the world, including London, Los Angeles and Paris, and has been called for by Nobel laureates, parliamentarians, scientists and NGOs across the world. It follows The Independent’s Stop Fuelling The Climate Crisis campaign which shone a light on fossil fuel production in the UK when Glasgow hosted Cop26 last year.
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