Tausi Insider

The sun sets behind the COP27 logo outside the conference venue on Saturday, Nov. 12 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Peter Dejong/The Associated Press It’s halfway time at the UN climate talks in Egypt, with negotiators still working on draft agreements before ministers arrive next week to push for a substantial deal to fight climate change. The two-week meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh started with strong appeals from world leaders for greater efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and help poor nations cope with global warming. Scientists say the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere needs to be halved by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord. The 2015 pact set a target of ideally limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, but left it up to countries to decide how they want to do so. Here is a look at the main issues on the table at the COP27 talks: What about the U.S. and China? The top U.S. negoti...

A COP27 sign in Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 17. EMILIE MADI/Reuters Fossil fuel producers benefited from sympathetic treatment in Egypt at the COP27 climate talks, government officials said, bringing their influence to bear in rushed final negotiations and frustrating those who hoped for a more ambitious outcome. Officials said the host Egypt, a natural gas exporter and frequent recipient of funds from Gulf oil producers, was partly responsible, although the war in Ukraine and the subsequent European energy crisis also had an impact. Egyptian officials have said their priority was to provide a conducive atmosphere for negotiations and act as a neutral mediator. The presidency denied that fossil fuel producers had been given sympathetic treatment. “The end decision at COP27 was a compilation of inputs reached by consensus of all the UNFCCC parties who were all consulted,” it said in a statement, referring to nearly 200 countries taking part in the summit under th...