By Valerie Volcovici
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – A few countries have resisted mentioning a global goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the official text of the COP27 summit in Egypt, U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry said at the conference on Saturday.
“You’re absolutely correct. There are very few countries, but a few, that have raised the issue of not mentioning this word or that word,” Kerry said when asked about opposition by some governments to mentioning the 1.5C target.
“But the fact is, that in Glasgow that was adopted, the language is there. And I know… Egypt doesn’t intend to be the country that hosts a retreat from what was achieved in Glasgow,” Kerry said, referring to last year’s COP summit in Scotland.
World governments agreed in 2015 during a U.N. summit in France to try to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5C, a deal dubbed the Paris Agreement that was seen as a massive breakthrough in international ambition to fight climate change.
Greenhouse gas emissions have been rising since, however, and scientists say the world risks missing the target without swift and deep cuts. Breaching the 1.5C threshold risks unleashing the worst consequences of global warming.
(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Pravin Char)
