Cop27 live updates: Joe Biden warns climate crisis existential threat to planet
US president unveils crackdown on methane, just as scientists warn avoiding disastrous climate change even harder
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Your support makes all the difference.US president Joe Biden has told world leaders the global climate crisis poses an existential threat to the planet and promised that the United States was doing its part to combat it.
The emergency is about human security and economic security, he said in an address to the Cop27 climate talks in Egypt, as he highlighted historic drought, wild fires, devastating storms, food insecurity and flooding, leaving people homeless.
And he pledged the US would meet its emissions targets by 2030.
His speech was intended to remind government representatives gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh to keep alive a goal of keeping the global average temperature rise within 1.5 Celsius to avert the worst impacts of planetary warming.
The president was briefly heckled by protesters during a pause in his speech.
He also announced a stepping-up of plans to help African nations adapt to the climate emergency.
His administration is ramping up efforts to cut methane emissions, targeting the oil and gas industry.
But scientists said that global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels were on track to rise around 1 per cent this year, warning this would make it harder for the world to avoid disastrous levels of climate change.
Biden and Egyptian leader hold talks
US president Joe Biden has arrived in Egypt with a giant domestic investment in tow — and he’s likely to face questions about how far the US will go to pull other large greenhouse gas emitters along.
His attendance at the UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh is the first stop on an around-the-world trip that will also take him to a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in Cambodia and a Group of 20 summit meeting for leaders of the world’s largest economies in Bali, Indonesia.
He praised Egypt for speaking up strongly on the war in Ukraine as he met Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Boris Johnson: Halting destruction of ancient forests is key
“Destroying the world’s tropical forests is literally criminal: illegal crops, illegal mining, illegal cattle ranching and illegal palm oil plantations.”
It is time to review our legislation so that these crimes face proper sanctions, write Boris Johnson and Iván Duque for The Independent:
This could be the answer to the climate crisis | Boris Johnson and Iván Duque
In sawing down our ancient forests we are cutting our own throats. It is time to review our legislation so that these crimes face proper sanctions, write Boris Johnson and Iván Duque
Nancy Pelosi mobbed by photographers
In case you missed it: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was mobbed by crowds at the Cop27 global climate summit on Thursday despite being surrounded by heavy security in Sharm el-Sheikh. The trip is her first major overseas visit since the hammer attack on her husband Paul Pelosi at the couple’s home in San Francisco:
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‘We don’t want to be refugees’: Antigua PM calls for US payouts
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister has accused the United States of “subterfuge” in its approach to climate compensation for vulnerable countries.
“We don’t want to be climate refugees in anybody’s country. We want to maintain our civilisations that have existed for hundreds of years,” Gaston Browne, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States said. Exclusive by Louise Boyle:
Antigua & Barbuda PM calls on US to pay climate compensation
‘Let’s face it, these Cops have been taking place over 30 years. And every year we reiterate the urgency but we’re still on a slow march,’ Gaston Browne, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, told The Independent
Doctors lie on ground at climate talks protest
Hundreds of activists have protested at the Cop27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, calling for “climate justice” and finance for vulnerable countries.
They included groups of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, scientists and medical students from around the world, who aimed to highlight how the climate crisis is killing people.
One doctor “performed CPR” on an inflatable globe as others made speeches, then “collapsed” on the floor of a conference centre.
The activists included people from China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Uganda, Switzerland, Poland, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, America and the Netherlands, as well as the UK.
Joe Biden is preparing to address world leaders at the key Cop27 climate negotiations, where he will attempt to showcase US leadership on climate issues.
Among announcements likely timed for his arrival, the United States and the European Union plan to make a joint announcement pledging to crack down on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
Washington and Brussels already have proposals to do this, but the declaration is meant to encourage other countries to do the same, building on the Global Methane Pledge to slash methane emissions by 30 per cent this decade.
However, President Biden has pressed energy producers for more oil drilling to lower petrol prices for consumers following Russia’s war on Ukraine. Mr Biden is set to announce a rule cracking down on emissions of methane — a greenhouse gas that contributes even more to global warming than carbon dioxide — at the summit.
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