COP27: We’re on a highway to climate hell, says U.N boss

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (centre) and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres after a world leaders picture at COP27 Monday. Pic/AFP

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told countries gathered at the start of the COP27 summit in Egypt on Monday they face a stark choice: work together now to cut emissions or condemn future generations to climate catastrophe.

The speech was intended to set an urgent tone as governments sit down for two weeks of talks on how to avert the worst impacts of climate change, even as they are distracted by Russia's war in Ukraine, rampant consumer inflation and energy shortages.

"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish," Guterres told delegates gathered in the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Leaders from countries from Britain to Saudi Arabia were scheduled to speak later in the day.

Guterres called for a pact between the world's richest and poorest countries to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels and speed up delivery of the funding needed to ensure poorer countries can reduce emissions and cope with the unavoidable impacts of warming that has already occurred.

"Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible," he said. "We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator."

Hunger striker's sister flies in The sister of Egyptian-British hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah landed in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday to campaign for his release. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he will raise Abd el-Fattah's case with Egypt's leadership.

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