'Cooperate or Perish': UN Secretary-General Rolls Out Alternatives as COP27 Kicks Off in Egypt

This year, the COP27 climate summit has already become significant in two ways. First of all, the event is being held in a continent, which, according to UN, is the most vulnerable to climate change impacts; secondly - the hot button issue of loss and damage funding has made it all the way to the negotiation agenda.

Setting up the tone for the COP27 summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has pointed to the apparent scenarios of how the climate process might evolve in the frameworks of the meeting.

"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish", the UN chief sated on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, where thousands of participants of the 2022 climate summit gathered for nearly two weeks of negotiations.

Pointing out the urgency of the need to resolve the climate change crisis, Guterres noted "we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator."

“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” he said.

Speaking ahead of some 100 foreign state leaders, who are expected to deliver speeches in the next few days, the UN chief argued that the climate crisis is "the central challenge of our century."

"Climate change is on the different time-lie and on the different scale. It's the defining issue of our age. It's the central challenge of our century. It is unacceptable, outrageous and self-defeating to put it on the back burner," Guterres stated.

The 2022 UN climate summit is the fifth COP that is being held on the African continent, the most vulnerable place on Earth, in terms of climate change impacts. The previous summits held here took place in Morocco (twice), Kenya and South Africa.

The fact that this year's event is being hosted by an African country, as devastating natural disasters linked to the climate crisis ravage the continent, led some observers to look at the gathering optimistically.

The event has already become significant since the issue of the loss and damage funding (question whether rich countries should pay compensations to vulnerable nations hit by climate-change induced disasters) was put on the negotiations table.

The COP27 summit will last until 18 November.