US President Joe Biden is expected in Egypt for UN climate talks (Cop27) at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, He will be there for a few hours according to his handlers.
The United States is the world’s second biggest emitter and is under pressure to do more for countries reeling from natural disasters.
Cop27 talks have been dominated by the need for wealthy polluters to stop stalling on helping developing countries green their economies and prepare for future impacts – as well as calls to provide financial help for the damage already being caused by climate-induced catastrophes.
Biden will reportedly “underscore the need to go further, faster, to help the most vulnerable communities build their resilience” and push major economies to “dramatically” cut emissions.
“How long do we have to sit around to wait before we say, ‘Hey let’s get really serious’,” US climate envoy John Kerry told a Cop27 panel.
This week, Kerry presented a public-private partnership aimed at supporting the transition to renewable energy in developing nations and based on a carbon credit system.
But the plan has been panned by activists wary of firms using these to “offset” their carbon emissions.
New research shows just how dauntingly hard it will be to meet the goal of capping global warming at 1.5°C above preindustrial levels – requiring emissions to be slashed nearly in half by 2030.
The new study – published on Friday in the journal Earth System Science Data – found that emissions from fossil fuels are on track to rise 1 percent in 2022 to reach an all-time high.
