Climate breakdown close to 'irreversible', leaders told

World leaders have been warned climate breakdown is close to being "irreversible", as they gathered for the make-or-break Cop27 summit amid accusations of "backsliding on promises made".

- ROB MERRICK JOE MIDDLETON

The conference got under way against the gloomy backdrop of a new United Nations report finding the 1.5C limit for global heating is now "barely within reach" - after the past eight years were the eight hottest ever recorded.

The UN secretary-general warned world leaders in Egypt including Rishi Sunak, after his U-turn on attending - that "our planet is on course to reach tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible".

Just 29 of 194 countries have obeyed the instruction from Cop26, in Glasgow last year, to come forward with more ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, demanded that the promise be kept, saying he is "looking out" at the 165 countries that still needed to move further and faster.

"I will not be a custodian of backsliding," he said, adding: "We know what must be done by everybody everywhere, every single day, doing everything we possibly can. Colleagues, it's time to get to work."

Mr Stiell's call to action comes amid new findings that the past eight years have been Earth's hottest on record.

The provisional State of the Global Climate report, published by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) yesterday, said that sea level rise in the past decade was double what it was in the 1990s and since January 2020 has jumped at a higher rate than that.