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A woman walks past a COP27 sign at the UN climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 16. Peter Dejong/The Associated Press UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world governments to “stand and deliver” a strong climate deal at the COP27 summit in Egypt on Thursday as negotiators remained far apart on key issues a day before the agreement’s deadline. The two-week conference at the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh is a test of global resolve to combat global warming as governments around the world are buffeted by crises ranging from a land war in Europe to sky-high consumer costs. “Global emissions are at their highest level in history – and rising. Climate impacts are decimating economies and societies – and growing. We know what we need to do – and we have the tools and resources to get it done,” Guterres told the conference. “I am here to appeal to all parties to rise to this moment and to the greatest challenge facing humanity. The world is watching and has a si...

A security personnel stands guard next to a COP27 sign during the closing plenary at the climate summit, in Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov. 20. MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY/Reuters The first United Nations climate conference I covered was the 2009 COP15 dud in Copenhagen. Since then, I have worked the conference mob scenes in Paris, Madrid and, earlier this month, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. They were duds, too, in the sense that none ended with formal agreements to reduce fossil-fuel use – the only metric that matters as average global temperatures rise to dangerous levels. The annual COPs have turned into chaotic, bloated carnivals where, in their final desperate hours (most of them go into overtime) the distraught host-country presidency produces a face-saving agreement that allows it to declare a victory of some sort – or at least deflect some of the criticism that the outcome was a total failure. Even a breakthrough that barely fits the definition is billed as a win, sinc...

Police officers patrol outside the Palais de Congres, during the opening of COP15 on Dec. 6, the two-week U.N. biodiversity summit in Montreal. CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/Reuters Delegates have reached the starting line for COP15 in Montreal, the 15th United Nations conference on biodiversity, where work on a new international agreement to protect nature is set to commence on Wednesday. But participants say the road ahead is already looking like a steep, uphill climb. For representatives from 196 countries who are party to the UN Convention on Biodiversity, the central purpose of the meeting is to hammer out a new framework under the convention, with agreed targets to be met by 2030. The previous framework expired in 2020 with none of its targets met. COP15 was initially intended to take place that year in China, but its completion has been delayed two years by the COVID-19 pandemic and the venue shifted to Montreal. The conference, taking place at Montreal’s Palais des congrès, is surrounded...

A person walks by a lit up sign during the COP15 conference in Montreal, on Dec. 7. ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images Canada’s negotiators at the COP15 conference say business groups and financial institutions have a role to play in preserving the planet’s biodiversity. Basile van Havre, co-chair of one of the Montreal conference’s working groups, says the private sector is looking for rules and certainty on the environmental effectiveness of its investments. He says it’s part of a larger push for performance standards that companies and investors can use to measure their activities against. The conference, which is bringing more than 190 nations together, is entering its second day of hard talks on hard targets for saving the world’s biodiversity. What’s on the agenda at the UN’s COP15 nature summit in Montreal? Negotiators hope to reach an agreement on how to protect 30 per cent of Earth’s land and water, as well as a deal on how to pay for that conservation. Van Havre says business g...

Delegates walk in front of the Palais des Congres during the COP15 biodiversity conference in Montreal, on Dec. 13. ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images Developing countries have walked out of a global conference on conserving the world’s biodiversity over concerns that talks about how those efforts should be funded are lagging behind those on how much land and water should be set aside. “We feel that negotiations have not been moving at the same pace,” said a delegate from one of the countries that left the COP15 talks in Montreal at about 1 a.m. Wednesday. “We feel that resource mobilization has been left behind.” The delegate, who asked not to be named, said rich countries have been happy to talk about specific targets for conservation. The marquee goal of the conference is a deal on setting aside 30 per cent of the globe’s land and water. But he said those countries have not been so willing to come up with a number on how much they’re willing to pay. “Why are we discussing figures on t...

Sultan al-Jaber talks at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 31, 2022. Kamran Jebreili/The Associated Press Hundreds of climate and environmental groups from around the world released a letter Thursday that decried the nomination of an oil executive to oversee the United Nations climate negotiations at COP28 this year. Earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates, host of the U.N. climate talks this year, named Sultan al-Jaber to the presidency of the conference Nov. 30 to Dec. 12. The company he runs as chief executive, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., produces 4 million barrels of crude oil per day and hopes to expand to 5 million daily by the end of the decade. Revenues generated from the sale of that oil are critical to economic health of the UAE, which is among the world’s top 10 oil producers. And the burning of that oil creates carbon dioxide emissions while the climate crisis is worsening. Activists said the selection of al-Ja...