The US will not change its climate agenda due to elections

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The United States will continue the climate fight regardless of the outcome of yesterday’s legislative elections, assured John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s special envoy for the climate at COP27, where the countries of the South raise their voices and demand financing which could be exorbitant.

The United States faces important legislative elections that could give control of Congress to the Republican opposition.

“Even if we lose, President Biden is more determined than ever to continue what we’re doing,” John Kerry explained.

Biden’s great legislative work in the middle of the term has been his “Inflation Reduction Act”, with 370,000 million dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.

No Republican voted in favor of that law, which in his opinion neither lowers inflation nor ensures the country’s energy future.

Biden, who will attend COP27 on Friday, acknowledges his country’s “particular responsibility” to developing nations, Kerry said.

These nations are energetic in a particular claim, which they have managed to put on the official agenda of COP27, despite the fact that there are still two years of negotiation ahead.

It is the chapter of “damages and losses”, controversial because for the countries of the South it has to be synonymous with compensation for the damage caused by two centuries of industrialization and intensive use of fossil fuels, carried out by the countries of the North.

For rich countries, a fund of this type has to be voluntary, and that does not imply the possibility of lawsuits in international courts.

For its part, the main emitter of greenhouse gases, China, reaffirmed its commitment to the climate fight, despite the fact that its president did not attend the meeting.

“Multilateralism, solidarity and cooperation have always been the solution to our difficulties,” said Chinese special envoy Xie Zhenhua.

Pressure

International pressure against Egypt increased yesterday to demand the immediate release of political prisoner Alaa Abdel Fatah, who stopped eating and drinking and is in danger of death, an issue that complicates the host country of COP27.

Abdel Fatah, of dual Egyptian and British nationality, an engineer by training and a pro-democracy blogger, a staunch enemy of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, was sentenced at the end of 2021 to five years in prison for “spreading false information”, after spending the longest part of the decade spent behind bars.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron took advantage of COP27 to refer to the activist’s case in their interviews with President al Sisi.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, did the same in his meeting with the Egyptian authorities.