COP27

1 December 2022Feature

These are excerpts from the speech of Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, at the opening of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

I came here to say a few things. I don’t need to repeat the horror and the devastation wrecked upon this earth over the course of the last 12 months since we met in Glasgow.

Whether the apocalyptic floods in Pakistan, or the heat waves from Europe to China, or in the last few days my own region, the devastation caused in Belize, with tropical storm Lisa, or the torrential floods a few days ago in St Lucia. We don’t need to repeat it because the pictures are worth a thousand words.…

1 December 2022News

New campaign needed to support financing for the Global South

‘The ultimate test of this COP is that it has responded to the voices of the climate vulnerable by establishing a fund for loss and damage.’ That was Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s minister for climate change, speaking at the closing session of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on 20 November, on behalf of most of the Global South – she was representing the G77/China* group.

Here in the UK, Friends of the Earth welcomed the fund as ‘a first step towards wealthy nations providing loss and…