There is a consensus among campaigners and activists that the COP27 climate summit in Egypt was a dismal failure, despite the claims of breakthrough from the PR crowd.
Carbon Brief did its usual comprehensive report on the meeting, summarising the outcome:
“In reality, the results were a mixed bag, achieving more on the impacts of climate change than on its causes.
The decision to set up a new fund for ‘loss and damage’ resulting from climate change marked the climax of a decades-long effort by small island states and other vulnerable nations.
But the EU and its allies voiced strong concerns about an outcome that did little to advance efforts to stay below 1.5°C, beyond what had been agreed at COP26 in Glasgow last year.”
The loss and damage deal does at last acknowledge the impact made by the ‘old’ emitters since the industrial revolution. But this has essentially been packaged as a long-term issue, whereas the attitude of just about every environmental activist and campaigner, as well as climate scientists, can be summarised in just one word: urgency.
