The common designation is COP27, which opens Sunday (Nov. 6) in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The meeting will end Nov. 18.
The formal designation is the “27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.” Most expectations for the outcome of the meeting are low. Many world leaders will attend and make anodyne statements, with little follow-through.
U.S. President Joe Biden will attend on Nov. 11, where, according to Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, “At COP27, he will build on the significant work the United States has undertaken to advance the global climate fight and help the most vulnerable build resilience to climate impacts, and he will highlight the need for the world to act in this decisive decade.”
New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak initially snubbed COP 27, saying that he needed to stay home to focus on “depressing domestic challenges.” That sparked a backlash from his Conservative Party, and Sunak did an abrupt reversal, saying on Twitter that he would attend to “deliver on Glasgow’s legacy of building a secure and sustainable future” – a reference to last year’s COP 26 event that Britain hosted.
The issue that is likely to dominate the meeting is the failure so far of the rich industrialized nations to come up with a promised $100 billion as reparations from damages they have caused to poor, under-developed nations. COP 26 in Glasgow last year made the commitment to cover what has come to be called “loss and damage” from climate change induced by the industrial world.
Hindustan Times commented, “Failure of wealthy countries to keep the $100 billion pledge to help poorer nations deal with the climate crisis and mobilising funds for mitigation to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees C are expected to be the key issues” at COP 27.