Cop27 climate summit begins as report reveals last 8 years hottest on record – live

Political leaders from around the globe have a “special responsibility” to urgently drive the transformation needed to tackle climate change, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has said.

He made the comments as he prepares to attend the Cop27 UN climate talks in Egypt.

The climate change conference takes place in Sharm El-Sheikh this week.

Mr Martin will attend the event as well as Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney and Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora Colm Brophy.

At the summit, the Taoiseach will participate in a number of high-level events and roundtables, including on food security and on the sustainability of vulnerable communities.

He will join Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for a working breakfast on The Global Shield Against Climate Risks, a new initiative sponsored by the G7 and the V20 group of vulnerable countries aimed at scaling up the finance needed to protect against climate risks in poor countries.

On Tuesday afternoon Mr Martin will deliver Ireland’s national statement, setting out Ireland’s climate ambition, and the Government’s commitment to supporting vulnerable countries who, despite having contributed least to climate change, are bearing the brunt of its impact.

Hundreds of climate activists were arrested in Amsterdam after blocking private jets from taking off – on bikes.

Protesters stormed the Schiphol airport on Saturday, and were seen cycling around the Tarmac as security guards tried to bring them down.

“We want fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets,” said Dewi Zloch of Netherlands Greenpeace.

The sister of detained writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah fears the Foreign Office is “setting up the Prime Minister to fail” on his Cop27 trip to Egypt because her brother may die there while on hunger strike during the conference.

Rishi Sunak told the family of the British-Egyptian activist in a letter that he will raise their plight with the Egyptian president – but would be updating the family after the climate summit is over, which they say could be too late.

Mr Abd El-Fattah has been imprisoned in Cairo since 2006 over his pro-democracy writing.

He has been on hunger strike in prison, eating only 100 daily calories for the past 200 days, and will stop drinking water as the summit begins to escalate his protest.

Mr Sunak wrote to his family on Saturday saying he was “totally committed” to resolving the case, which he described as “a priority for the British Government both as a human rights defender and as a British national”.

He described Cop27 as “another opportunity to raise your brother’s case with the Egyptian leadership” and said Middle East minister Lord Ahmad would update the family on negotiations after the summit – which finishes on November 18.

Mr Abd El-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, said she was worried her brother, who looked “very, very frail” with “sunken eyes” last time she saw him in August, would die before the end of Cop27.

She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “It’s good that we have a commitment from the Prime Minister’s office, but what worried me is he said we would get confirmation after the conference.

“I feel like the Prime Minister needs to understand the urgency – after the conference it could be too late.

“I know it’s not the Prime Minister’s mistake, but the Foreign Office, the embassy, they have been working on this for a very long time, and I feel like they are setting up the Prime Minister to fail in this trip.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called into doubt the Government’s leadership on climate change.

Asked about the chances of success from the UN’s Cop27 climate change conference, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I don’t think so, unfortunately. I don’t think there’s been the leadership either from our country or frankly from other countries…

“People haven’t seen the opportunity that if you invest in renewables, you invest in insulating people’s homes, you lower people’s bills – really important at the moment – and you protect the environment and you annoy President Putin because you get great energy security for our country and for the Western world.

“So there should have been in the run up to Cop a taking of the opportunity by people across the world, and I’m afraid that’s not happened.”

As Cop27 gets underway, we speak to communities on the frontline about their fears for the future in our Voices of Africa series. Mohamed Adow shares his thoughts:

“For many Africans, climate change is not a “scientific” issue or something only of interest to environment reporters.

“And it’s not about polar bears. For us it’s an existential threat to our way of life; one which is already taking our loved ones and our livelihoods. So, it feels good to have the UN climate summit, Cop27, back on African soil this month, where the climate crisis is a true matter of life or death.

“The great tragedy of the climate crisis is that it is those least responsible that are suffering the consequences first and worst. It will come for everyone eventually, and we’re already seeing those impacts in the UK and other global north countries. But for many of us in Africa it’s now a daily reality, one which we didn’t create.

“That is why this Cop27 needs to finally put the interests of those actually suffering the most at the top of the agenda.”

The past eight years have been Earth’s hottest on record, findings revealed, as the critical United Nations climate summit Cop27 gets underway.

World leaders and thousands of negotiators, scientists, and activists are gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for the next two weeks to hash out the global pacts urgently needed to avoid planetary catastrophe.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned this week that the 2020s are a “crucial” decade, “when the global climate fight will be won or lost”.

As Cop27 gets underway, we speak to communities on the frontline about their fears for the future in our Voices of Africa series. Oladosu Adenike shares her thoughts:

“The climate crisis disproportionately affects the global south. In Nigeria, climate change is no longer a threat but a reality.

“This year’s flood in Nigeria has affected millions of people: homes, farms, schools – our country has lost billions of dollars to the damages. It has affected more than two-thirds of Nigeria, which makes it a total disaster.

“Yet this is just one of the several realities of the climate crisis we are faced with. This has been our reality for a very long time.

“Currently, in my region – west Africa – the climate crisis is exacerbating armed conflict and violence between farmers and herders, due to resources control and the loss of livelihoods. It is the same in other regions of Africa.

“Climate change is driving hunger, food insecurity and poverty due to environmental instability.”

Mr Miliband said there was a need to be “all in” on renewable and zero carbon alternatives.

He told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “The message that Labour would be taking to Cop27 and that I will be taking at the end of this coming week when I go, is that it is now cheaper to save the world, than to destroy it… at home and abroad we need to be all-in on those renewable and zero carbon alternatives.”

He described the Government’s onshore wind stance as “terrible” adding: “That is driving up their (people’s) bills… so the Government is saying no to the cheapest, cleanest form of power… it makes no sense and it makes a complete joke frankly of Rishi Sunak, the man who couldn’t even decide whether he was going to go Cop27, it makes a complete joke of the idea that he’s somehow a leader on clean energy.”

Labour, he said, “do oppose” new drilling licences in the North Sea, adding: “The way to cut bills, to give us energy security, is onshore wind, offshore wind, solar and Labour has a world-leading plan to say by 2030 all of the power that powers our electricity system will be come zero-carbon sources.”

The commitment he added was “stretching and is absolutely achievable”.

The opening session of the Cop27 kicked off at the Egyptian sea side resort town of Sharm el Sheikh with Cop26 president Alok Sharma handing over the presidency to finance minister Sameh Shoukry.

The opening ceremony of the session, attended by The Independent, saw Mr Sharma and the incoming president speak of the hope and continued trust in the negotiations despite criticism of insufficient action.

Mr Sharma said despite the challenges world is facing this year with Russia-Ukraine war, the Cop process has managed to achieve considerable results and keep the goal of Paris agreement alive.

“We kept the goal of 1.5C alive,” Mr Sharma said. “Now Egypt will take it forward.”

Egypt has called this year’s summit the “implementation Cop”, tackling issues that were left unresolved at last year’s summit.

Over 120 world leaders are expected to arrive in the Egyptian seaside resort. However, some big names like Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi may not participate this year.

As Cop27 gets underway, we speak to communities on the frontline about their fears for the future in our Voices of Africa series. Abigael Kima shares her thoughts:

“I see two young girls, a little over 6 years old, fetching water from a dirty water pan. They are filling a 20 litre jerry can that, once full, weighs almost as much as they do.

“They push it home for more than a kilometre, walking along roads littered with rotting animal carcasses – the dead bodies of cattle that have neither pasture nor water to sustain them.

“I am a visitor in Isiolo County, Northern Kenya. But this is the daily reality for a great many communities here in Africa.

“Northern Kenya is deep in a severe and prolonged drought right now. There has been no rain for over two years. Households have been completely devastated by loss of livestock.

“One homestead I visited had a herd of 50 cattle and 30 goats before the drought. Now they have just two cows and one goat left.”