There is widespread media coverage of the speeches given by world leaders at COP27 yesterday. UN secretary general António Guterres said the world is “on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator”, according to the Independent. The Financial Times adds that he “called for a new ‘climate solidarity pact’ in which rich countries would help poorer nations financially, singling out the US and China, saying they had a ‘particular responsibility’ to make it a reality”. The Guardian also quotes Guterres: “We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing…We can sign a climate solidarity pact, or a collective suicide pact.” Former US vice president Al Gore said: “Choose life over death…It is not time for moral cowardice,” according to AP News. Meanwhile, Climate Home News says: “Egyptian president Abel Fattah el-Sisi opened with a ‘sincere appeal’ for peace.” BusinessGreen notes that COP26 president Alok Sharma gave the opening address of COP27 and handed over the presidency.

Speaking alongside Guterres, Pakistan’s prime minister said his country would seek compensation for climate damage from recent flooding, Reuters reports. BBC News adds that Pakistan’s government says the figure for losses and rebuilding now stands at more than $30bn. The United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said his country will be a responsible supplier of oil and gas for as long as the world needs, Reuters says. Elsewhere, Reuters quotes Macky Sall, president of Senegal and chair of the African Union: “We are for a green transition that is equitable and just, instead of decisions that jeopardise our development.” Meanwhile, the Guardian says Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley “criticised industrialised nations for failing the developing world on the climate crisis, in a blistering attack” and “warned of a billion climate refugees around the world by the middle of the century if governments failed to tackle the climate crisis”. The i newspaper reports that Mottley “called for $5tn of private-sector savings to be unlocked to stop the emissions of planet-warming gases, but added it would ‘require a change in the attitude’ of developed countries”. According to Politico, French president Emmanuel Macron “gave his support to elements of [Mottley’s] plan”, in a speech that “signalled a shift in tone that developing countries have been long been pushing for”.

BBC News reports that UK prime minister Rishi Sunak called the war in Ukraine a reason to act faster to tackle climate change. “Sunak said countries such as the UK had a moral responsibility to help developing countries decarbonise,” the Times reports. Politico and the Sun note that Sunak has promised to deliver on Britain’s £11.6bn climate finance pledge. However, the Independent says Sunak “dealt a blow” to developing countries by making no reference to loss and damage in his speech. The Mirror adds Sunak was “blasted” for his “tepid” speech and the i newspaper says “No 10 played down suggestions that it would also fund reparation payments to developing nations”. The New York Times notes that only seven of the 110 national leaders at COP27 were women. The Independent says that King Charles “was listed as taking part in the opening ceremony of COP27 despite not appearing at the UN climate summit”.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that at a side event, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson “said the UK did not have the financial resources to pay ‘reparations’ to low-income countries affected by climate change”. The Sun adds: “Boris added that instead of paying up for mistakes of the past, wealthy governments should ‘look to the future’.” At the event, Johnson said the world needs to “double down” on the net-zero goal, Politico says. Johnson warned that nations cannot “go weak and wobbly” on climate change targets, BBC News reports. The Independent adds that Johnson called himself the “spirit of COP26”. Meanwhile, BBC News reports that Nicola Sturgeon is calling on more developed nations to make good on COP26 pledges Scotland. Sturgeon told the Independent: “It’s right to be talking about the UK as a green superpower. That’s certainly my ambition for Scotland.”

Meanwhile, former UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa told Reuters that COP27 “must wrench global leaders’ attention back to global warming as multiple crises”. The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian have published pieces on funding for “loss and damage”. Meanwhile EnergyMonitor, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Independent, the New York Times and another New York Times piece have analysed emissions from individual countries or assessed their progress towards the goals they set at COP26. Separately, the Washington Post asks: “The UN holds a climate summit every year. Is it actually working?”

The Guardian covers a new report which finds that developing countries will need $2tn (£1.75bn) a year in climate funding by 2030. According to the paper, the report was commissioned jointly by the UK and Egyptian governments, and presented at COP27. It continues: “The figures, which would cover the needs of all of the world’s developing economies except China, are far higher than any climate finance that has yet been forthcoming to help poor countries.” It adds that around half of the money could come from local sources, but that “external finance, as well as the World Bank and other multilateral development banks, must also play a key role”. Reuters says that current investment stands at around $500m, according to the report. BusinessGreen adds: “The report also calls for grants and low-interest loans from the governments of developed countries to double from $30bn annually today to $60bn by 2025.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that “Germany and Belgium on Monday joined a small number of wealthy countries to commit funding to help developing nations facing damage and losses caused by climate change, committing €170m and €2.5m respectively.” This comes as Press Association reports that Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a £5m funding pot to tackle loss and damage in developing countries. Elsewhere, the New York Times reports that Switzerland is paying poorer nations, such as Ghana or Dominica, to “reduce emissions there – and give Switzerland credit for it”. The paper says “the agreements raise concerns that other countries will follow suit, delaying more difficult cuts of greenhouse gas emissions in wealthier nations”. And the head of the International Monetary Fund tells Reuters that the price of carbon dioxide emissions needs to average at least $75 a tonne globally by the end of the decade for global climate goals to succeed.

“More than two dozen countries including the UK have formed a partnership committed to halting and reversing forest loss this decade,” Press Association reports. The paper says the partnership – chaired by the US and Ghana – includes countries which account for 60% of global GDP and 33% of the world’s forests. The first meeting of the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership “takes place a year after more than 140 leaders promised at COP26 in Britain to end deforestation by the end of the decade”, Reuters notes. The Guardian says: “Brazil is expected to join the initiative, under the incoming president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and new funding from the public and private sector will take the spending for forest conservation above $20bn over the next five years.” The paper adds that Sunak has pledged the UK’s continuing support for forest conservation, but is giving no new UK funding to the partnership. Under the headline: “As Glasgow forest pledge turns to action, most signatories drop out,” Climate Home News reports that “Russia, Indonesia and DRC are among the tree-rich nations not signed up to a COP27 partnership for delivering forest protection”. It notes that since the forest pledge at COP26, “there have been no major joint meetings following up on this pledge nor any organisation set up to take it forward”.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that “the world’s largest food trading companies” have outlined a plan to “eliminate deforestation from their supply chains for soy, beef and palm oil by 2025”.

Xie Zhanghua, China’s top envoy for climate change, has “called for more aid to developing nations” at COP27, reports Bloomberg. During an event hosted in China’s pavilion on Sunday (which Carbon Brief attended), the outlet says Xie said: “I hope the conference this time will meet the demands of developing countries as much as possible as it is held in Egypt, a developing nation.” Bloomberg says that China has sent a delegation of “more than 50 people, a similar size in the previous COPs” to Egypt, which is being led by Zhao Yingmin, a vice minister of ecology and environment. Xie declined to respond to a question over the possibility for China and the US to resume formal bilateral talks on climate changes during the event, the outlet notes. The South China Morning Post and state-run newspaper Global Times also cover Xie’s statement. The Global Times notes that Xie said China has made “remarkable progress toward its goals” of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutralisation.

Meanwhile, the state news agency Xinhua notes that Zhao Yingmin said: “Together with the international community, we will jointly implement policies and actions to achieve synergies in pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and work together to contribute Chinese wisdom and strength to building a clean and beautiful world.” The agency also reports Zhao saying that the country has “accelerated the implementation” of its “dual carbon” goal, which is to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, in an “all-round way, including establishing a national agency to coordinate the top-level design of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality and issuing the guidelines on how to achieve the goal”.

In other news about China at COP27, Politico has an article titled: “US-China global influence battle takes centre stage at COP27.” It says that the Biden administration is “going all out to assert itself as a global leader on climate action” at this week’s conference, adding that doing so will “require a diplomatic faceoff with China”. It adds that the US, which is the “second biggest current emitter” after China, plans to “challenge China’s claim to global leadership on climate action with an array of new carbon reduction initiatives”. Alexandra Hackbarth, a China expert at the climate change thinktank E3G is quoted saying: “The geopolitical competition can actually be helpful…The US doing more [on climate] can lead China to do more.” Li Shuo, a Beijing-based policy adviser at Greenpeace East Asia, is quoted saying: “We have a hot war happening right now and food and energy crises across the world – that reduces the appetite for [China] to commit more to carbon emission reductions.”

The Washington Post quotes Jerry Brown, the former California governor and the founder of the California-China Climate Institute at the University of California at Berkeley, who said: “I assume that China has a level of rationality among its leadership elite…and it’s totally irrational not to cooperate with America on climate. It is – no matter what you think about Taiwan.” The Global Times says that it is the US that has been “taking politicisation of the climate issue to a new level before the summit”, adding that “with Washington sparing no effort to use this summit to shore up its leadership on climate issues, it is shifting blame onto China over climate issues and sowing discord between China and other developing countries”. The article quotes “observers” saying such behaviour shows that the US is “jealous about China’s popular role” among developing countries in dealing with global warming and other climate issues. Radio France Internationale reports that French president Emmanuel Macron has “urged” the US, China and other non-European rich nations to “pay their fair share” to help poorer countries deal with climate change. Macron told French and African climate campaigners on Monday on the sidelines of the UN climate summit (COP27) that “we need the US and China to step up on emissions cuts and financial aid”, the French broadcaster notes.

Elsewhere, the Global Times carries a comment piece by Gong Xin, a scholar of international studies, titled: “Tackling climate change, China and ASEAN are important partners.” Finally, the state-run newspaper China Daily runs a comment piece by Chen Bin, the director of the Centre for Eco-Environment Governance at Beijing Normal University and Fang Dan, a research fellow at the centre, who focus on the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14) which is running from 5 to 13 November. They write: “Coinciding with the COP27 and one month before the UN biodiversity conference (COP15), we should ‘seize the opportunity of the COP14 to demonstrate the importance of Ramsar and wetlands to meet climate goals.’“

There is continued coverage of a US proposal, due to be launched at COP27 on Wednesday, that would see “companies buy carbon credits and the proceeds be used to fund renewable energy projects in countries seeking to replace fossil fuels such as coal” Reuters reports. According to the newswire, “climate diplomat John Kerry has been canvassing companies in sectors including banking, consumer goods, shipping and aviation on the proposal”. The Washington Post adds: “While government action typically dominates these talks, political paralysis and public pressure are pushing companies to step up with their own emission pledges”. The Wall Street Journal also covers the proposal. (The idea, which appears to relate to “avoided emissions” offsets, was reported on the Financial Times frontpage yesterday and by Climate Home News last week.)

In other US news, the Washington Post covers a “sprawling new federal report” which finds that climate change is threatening the “things Americans value most”. The Independent has published a piece under the headline: “Climate at the 2022 midterms: Where Senate candidates stand and what’s at stake.” The Guardian reports that New York state has put a $4.2bn environmental bond on the midterm ballot. Elsewhere, Inside Climate News reports that if Republicans take control of Congress, they could block proposals by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which would require companies to disclose climate-related risks and greenhouse gas emissions.

Attendees at COP27 are unable to use the conference wifi to access the Human Rights Watch website, as well as “other key news websites needed for information during the talks”, the Guardian reports. The Independent reports that “Egyptian activists are divided as to whether holding the summit under what they say is one of the most repressive governments in Egypt’s history amounts to an offence or an opportunity”. The Wall Street Journal says: “Egyptian authorities have detained more than 100 people in connection with demonstrations planned for the COP27 climate summit, with rights groups saying the government appears increasingly concerned that protests could spill over into a broader display of dissent against President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.” NBC news reports that rights groups and activists have accused Egypt of “greenwashing” its human rights record. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that “even as Egypt hosts climate summit, selling fossil fuels is a priority”. It adds: “Critics have questioned Egypt’s fitness to host the summit over other aspects of its environmental record…but gas is in the spotlight.” Elsewhere, the New York Times reports that “some activists aren’t happy” that Coca-Cola is sponsoring the summit. And the Daily Telegraph reports that the summit is “beset with catering issues”.

German officials have said that “Germany is keen to talk to Britain about a solidarity pact that would allow Europe’s largest consumers of natural gas to bail each other out if an extreme cold snap were to create shortages this winter”, the Guardian reports. In an interview with the paper, a German civil servant said the agreement “could be mutually beneficial for both London and Berlin”. Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph reports on its frontpage that “Rishi Sunak is poised to announce a major gas deal with America” after COP27. Reuters reports that “French president Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak on Monday pledged ‘ambitious cooperation’ in the field of nuclear energy.”

Just Stop Oil activists shut down sections of the M25 by climbing onto gantries along the motorway during rush hour, the Independent reports. “Activists also targeted other locations along the motorway circling Greater London in a call to end all new oil and gas licenses,” the paper adds. Separately, the Independent reports that cabinet minister Grant Shapps has said any Just Stop Oil climate protesters forcing the closure of parts of the M25 “deserve to spend Christmas in prison”. The Daily Telegraph also reports on the protest: “Just Stop Oil protesters face a decade in jail as they wreak havoc on M25”. The Guardian carries a video of the protest. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that museums are enacting “zero bag” policies following climate protests in museums.

UK newspapers carry a wide range of editorials about COP27, including prime minister Rishi Sunak’s visit to Sharm el-Sheikh and the inclusion of loss and damage on the COP agenda for the first time. “Rishi Sunak is not interested in the climate emergency – and everyone knows it,” writes a Guardian editorial, under the subheading: “Britain had said its aim was to ‘keep 1.5C alive’. The prime minister seems to want it dead.” The Guardian‘s parliamentary sketch writer, John Crace, writes that “Sunak went to COP27 despite having nothing of value to do or say.” An Evening Standard editorial notes the absence of leaders from China, India and Canada at the global leaders summit yesterday, writing: “For a summit meant to secure the future of the world, it boasts only a decent attendance.” Terry Slavin, editor-in-chief of Reuters Events Sustainable Business, argues that “a dearth of data” on which countries are achieving on net-zero goals, means “UK leadership is critical at COP27”. And Nicola Sturgeon’s attendance at COP27 is “more publicity-seeking antics” writes former Labour MP and columnist Tom Harris for the Daily Telegraph.

In response to the inclusion of loss and damage on the COP agenda for the first time, deputy political editor Martyn Brown writes in the Daily Express: “Britain cannot afford climate change reparations.” Brown says campaigners want Britain to pay £1tn in reparations, but says “to unilaterally pay would let worse offenders like China off the hook.” An editorial in the Daily Mail under the headline “Reparations would be lunacy, Mr Sunak” says: “Rishi Sunak was wise to avoid apocalyptic rhetoric during his keynote speech to the COP27 climate conference in Egypt.” It continues: “Leave aside the fact this is simply unaffordable. To calculate compensation based on historical emissions would be mind-bogglingly complicated. How far back would it go? Who decides who pays? How much?“ (Carbon Brief published an analysis relating historical emissions to climate finance contributions yesterday, which also ran in the Guardian). “It’s insane to demand we pay for the ‘sin’ of our industrial past when China wreaks such climate damage today,” writes Daily Mail columnist Daniel Johnson in a separate piece. “Seeking reparations… is the wrong approach”, is the view of a Daily Telegraph editorial. An editorial in the Times, meanwhile, writes: “Climate change reparations for poorer countries are not politically or practically feasible. But rich countries must do more to help developing countries adapt.”

Many outlets highlighting the issue of loss and damage at COP27. Writing for the Guardian, Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate says: “37 million people are facing starvation in the Horn of Africa. Time for wealthier countries to adopt ‘loss and damage finance’.” She notes that that the countries worst affected by climate change have the lowest historical responsibility for emissions and says: “The one thing that is still lacking is the political will to make this happen.” Zimbabwean climate justice advocate Titus Gwemende has penned a piece for Climate Home News under the title:“I never got to say goodbye to my relatives, victims of climate chaos.” He continues: “Low-income countries pay five times more on debt repayments than they do on climate resilience…This year’s climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh has been termed ‘an African COP but the location doesn’t matter if our pockets are empty at the end of it.”

“Decoupling is not the answer to climate crisis”, writes Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization for the Financial Times. She continues: “To meet the challenge of moving to net-zero emissions by mid-century, we need open and predictable global markets to ensure access to technologies at affordable prices.” Meanwhile, Dr Luci Attala, a senior lecturer in anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, writes for the Big Issue that “to fix climate change we have to draw on the know-how of Indigenous cultures already protecting vast parts of the planet”.

The inclusion of loss and damage on the COP agenda for the first time kept “negotiators wrangling late into the night”, writes The Secret Negotiator for the Guardian. Tom Bawden, the i newspaper‘s science and environment correspondent, writes that the issue of loss and damage payments could make COP27 “one of the most cantankerous and controversial climate summits in years”. Meanwhile, Pilita Clark, associate editor and business columnist at the Financial Times, writes: “With luck, the COP27 conference will finally start to resolve this festering problem.” The Independent carries a long-read on “the fight for the biggest polluters to pay for the damage wrought by the climate crisis”, by journalists Sarah Kaplan and Susannah George.

“The fact that the UN’s Climate Change Conference is being held in Sharm El-Sheikh is totally unacceptable,” writes Mya-Rose Craig – the activist also known as ‘Birdgirl’ – for the Independent. “There is no right to protest, and so it is unsafe for protesters and women in particular,” she continues. And gal-dem climate editor Diyora Shadijanova has penned a piece for the i newspaper arguing that “young people can no longer be expected to pursue climate action alone”. She adds: “With COP27 now taking place, world leaders will reveal where they stand.”

In a packed and wide-ranging special report on “managing climate change”, the Financial Times has a series of articles on how “rich countries face growing pressure to pay for the costs of climate damage, while food and energy crises loom large”. As COP27 gets underway in Sharm el-Sheikh, one article looks at how the Egyptian government is setting the agenda for “the African COP”. It says: “For Egypt, a country grappling with a faltering economy and facing frequent criticism over its human rights record, hosting COP27 is an opportunity to project influence, attract investment, and promote itself as a regional leader.” Another article profiles COP26 president Alok Sharma, who has “insisted ahead of the event that managing climate change will be at the heart of his next career move”.

On climate action, the special report has articles on how the “US faces challenges in bid to hit Paris goals”, the steps Australia is taking to “catch up on climate action”, how India is plotting a “tricky path to growth and net-zero”, and why “pressure remains on Xi Jinping to kick China’s coal habit”. It has stories on why “look[ing] at the disasters around you” should spur action on climate change, and how the media has a “big responsibility in the age of global warming”.

The collection also has pieces focusing on the global south, including how “war and climate put 45m people at risk of famine”, why the “debt burden traps global south in a vicious cycle”, how the mayor of Freetown is battling the “flooding threat to urban slums”, how “appetite for charcoal threats ‘lungs of Africa’”, how “Amazon destruction woes overshadow Brazil’s farming advances”, and why “South Africa’s green deal on coal power cut fails to ignite”.

The special report includes articles on the oceans, such as why a “UN high seas treaty remains tantalisingly out of reach” and how “fish migration highlights need for ocean monitoring”. Other pieces includes a look at why the “UK’s green hydrogen ambitions fail to deliver”, why watchdog are calling on funds to “come clean on green finance claims”, and how nuclear fusion power is edging “from fantasy to reality”. The special report also includes comment pieces from FT associate editor and business columnist Pilita Clark on how the “stalemate” over loss and damage “has reached breaking point” and FT energy commentator Nick Butler on why the energy crisis in Europe “risks climate action reputation”.

Finally, in other FT comment articles, Jane Hartley – the US ambassador to the Court of St James – explains why “US-UK security co-operation is unparalleled – and must remain so”. She writes: “The US and UK face significant and shared global challenges, from mounting economic pressures to the climate crisis and threats from state and non-state actors alike. We confront these challenges together, driven by our common values and desire to build a brighter future for our citizens.” A Lex column says that US climate envoy John Kerry is “set to propose a voluntary scheme for big companies to fund the decarbonisation of power systems in the developing world”. That would “make political and economic sense”, the column says. And a second Lex column looks at Ithaca Energy, the North Sea oil and gas producer, is “making big promises from little Britain”.

A new review paper assesses recent research advances of “dryland productivity and ecosystem function and examine major outstanding debates on dryland responses to environmental changes”. There remains “large uncertainty on the extent to which drylands are expanding or greening”, the authors note, as well as around the “drivers of dryland vegetation shift” and “the role of land-use changes and climate variability in shaping ecosystem productivity”. The authors suggest “prioritising holistic approaches to dryland management, accounting for the increasing climatic and anthropogenic pressures and the associated uncertainties”. For more on the impact of climate change on drylands, see Carbon Brief’s explainer on desertification.