COP27 Day 1 & 2: World leaders take the stage

Day 1

António Guterres made several striking statements during his speech including, “we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator” and “humanity has a choice, cooperate or perish. It is either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact”.

While last year's event in Glasgow focused on setting targets and making agreements, this year’s summit opened with a focus on the accountability for delivering those COP26 targets and the full implementation of the Paris Agreement. The conference is focused on 4 major themes this year, including mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration.

UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, represented the UK as one of the 29 countries that have submitted their climate action plans. In his speech, he claimed that he is still committed to the £11.6 billion international climate fund that the Government pledged last year. He highlighted the benefits of international climate finance around the world but warned that the plan for the fund could take longer than five years as originally stated.

Day 2

The second day of the summit had a large focus on adaptation, with leaders of developing countries speaking primarily about how wealthier nations should be financially supportive and help them to adapt to climate change and mitigate the effects. The likes of drought and flooding have had devastating impacts on developing countries, from destroying communities to spreading disease and wiping out sources of food and clean water. It has been highlighted throughout the day that wealthy nations are failing to support the vulnerable in building climate resilience and compensating for the effects.

In turn, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly confirmed the UK will donate £200 million to the African Development Bank to support African countries build climate resilience. Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission stated that “Team Europe is stepping up” to meet its $100bn climate finance target.

The principle of togetherness and collaboration across the globe to reach climate targets has been a consistent and important message throughout the first 2 days of COP27. It will play a pivotal role in controlling the climate crisis and will without a doubt flow throughout the event.