World leaders gather for climate talks under cloud of crises

World leaders meeting on Monday for climate talks in Egypt are under pressure to deepen cuts in emissions and financially back developing countries already devastated by the effects of rising temperatures.

The UN's COP27 climate summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh comes as nations worldwide are facing increasingly intense natural disasters that have taken thousands of lives this year alone and cost billions of dollars.

At the opening ceremony on Sunday, COP27 officials urged governments to keep up efforts to combat climate change despite the economic crises linked to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, an energy crunch, soaring inflation and the persistent Covid-19 pandemic.

"The fear is other priorities take precedence," top United Nations climate change official Simon Stiell told a news conference.

The "fear is that we lose another day, another week, another month, another year — because we can't", he said.

By at least 2030, the world must slash greenhouse emissions by 45 per cent to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above late-19th-century levels.

However, by the end of the decade, current trends would see carbon pollution increase by 10 per cent, and the Earth's surface heat up by 2.8°C, according to findings unveiled recently.

Only 29 of 194 countries have presented improved climate plans, as called for at the UN talks in Glasgow last year, Stiell noted.

About 110 heads of state and government are expected to participate in two days of talks.

US President Joe Biden, whose country ranks second on the top-polluters list, will join COP27 later this week, after midterm elections on Tuesday that could put Republicans hostile to international action on climate change, in charge of Congress.

Fresh from his own election victory, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to attend the summit, with hopes high that he will protect the Amazon from deforestation after defeating climate-sceptic president Jair Bolsonaro.

Another new leader, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, reversed a decision not to attend the talks and is due to urge countries to move "further and faster" in transitioning away from fossil fuels. He will also hold discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron.

On Sunday, the heads of developing nations won a small victory when delegates agreed to put the controversial issue of money for "loss and damage" on the summit agenda.

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