COP27 | Leaders push for climate action, fossil tax at U.N. talks

Delegates at the climate summit in Egypt are expected to focus on financing issues on November 9, 2022.

World leaders are making the case for tougher action to tackle global warming on November 8, 2022, as this year's international climate talks in Egypt heard growing calls for fossil fuel companies to help pay for the damage they have helped cause to the planet.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned on November 7, 2022 that humanity was on “a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator," urging countries to "cooperate or perish.” He and leaders such as Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said it was time to make fossil fuel companies contribute to funds which would provide vulnerable countries with financial aid for the climate-related losses they are suffering.

The idea of a windfall tax on carbon profits has gained traction in recent months amid sky-high earnings for oil and gas majors even as consumers struggle to pay the cost of heating their homes and filling their cars.

The U.S. mid-term elections were hanging over the talks on November 8, 2022, with many environmental campaigners worried that defeat for the Democrats could make it harder for President Joe Biden to pursue his ambitious climate agenda.

Developing countries need to work with investors, rich countries and development banks to secure $1 trillion a year in external financing for climate action by the end of the decade and to match that with their own funds, a report said.

The report, released ahead of talks on climate change finance at the COP27 summit in Egypt, said the funding was required to cut emissions, boost resilience, deal with damage from climate change and restore nature and land.

“The world needs a breakthrough and a new roadmap on climate finance that can mobilise the $1 trillion in external finance that will be needed by 2030 for emerging markets and developing countries other than China,” said the report, commissioned by the current and previous climate summit hosts, Egypt and Britain.