Global climate talks approached crunch time on Friday, the final scheduled day of negotiations that are expected to go past their deadline as chances of a deal still looked unclear. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres flew to Sharm El-Sheikh on Friday after attending the G-20 meeting. Addressing the ministers engaged in the final negotiations, the UN chief said that the difference between North and South is very clear. This division has become whetted between developed and rapidly developing countries. But now it's time to stop the blame game, the UN chief added. He called on all countries to act on three urgent issues -- loss and damage to restore lost hope and to reach an acceptable agreement with developed countries on financing. In this context, he said, the time to talk about loss and damage is over. Now it's time to work. "We are witnessing the horror of loss and damage all over the world. There is no way to deny it. So a decision on this issue must be taken here at the last meeting." Injustice cannot continue to countries that are emitting less carbon and struggling to survive, he said. Now is the time to show compassion to them. In climate negotiations, loss and damage refers to the idea that rich nations, which have historically done the most to contribute to climate change, should compensate the developing countries most impacted. Read more: COP27: Bangladesh wants developed countries to deliver on $100 billion promise Limiting global warming to 1.5C is not just a goal, it is the key to saving the people of the world. Therefore, the 27th Climate Conference decision must confirm the commitment in this matter as proof of political will. We want the Climate Solidarity Act. This allows developed countries to take the lead in reducing carbon emissions. International financial institutions must accelerate the financing of renewable energy. This is essential to achieve the 1.5-degree target. The UN Secretary-General also said that countries need to be more proactive in the question of financing. Developing countries must provide $100 billion annually and an acceptable roadmap is needed to scale up adaptation financing. Saber Hossain Chowdhury Mp, a member of the Bangladesh delegation and president of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment, Forestry and Climate Change, told UNB that although progress has been made on many issues, progress is still lagging behind on complex issues such as reducing carbon emissions, loss and damage and finance. He said the most surprising thing is that the results of the speeches given by high-level world leaders on November 7 and 8 are not beingreflected even in the final meeting at the ministerial level. He also said that the United Nations and the host country are seeking reflection of that moral goodwill in the last meeting of the ministerial level to bring out effective and fruitful decisions from the conference. In this regard, the president of the 27th climate conference, the foreign minister of Egypt is talking separately with the ministers of developed and developing countries. They are discussing to reach an agreement on complex issues. But not a single positive reflection of this discussion can be seen in the ministerial level meeting. The discussion on the mitigation work program to reduce carbon emissions to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030 has not reached the desired level. The adaptation issue is caught in the process of nowhere. No consensus has been reached so far on financing. The ministers are reluctant to take a political decision on loss and damage, he added. He said that the issue of assistance to the countries affected by climate change has been put on the agenda of this climate conference by the host country Egypt for the first time. It came to the agenda for the first time mainly due to the pressure of African countries. Now the entire LDC countries are speaking on this issue. But developed countries are opposing it, he added. Read more: “We had enough of your promises and we need these words to be put into action now”  

The climate crisis continues to make people sick and jeopardizes lives and health must be at the core of these critical negotiations, the World Health Organization issued the grim reminder on the eve of the pivotal climate talks at COP27. WHO believes the conference must conclude with progress on the four key goals of mitigation, adaptation, financing and collaboration to tackle the climate crisis. COP27 will be a crucial opportunity for the world to come together and re-commit to keeping the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement goal alive. Read more: COP27: UN experts for complete integration of human rights standards, principles into negotiations The WHO welcomed journalists and COP27 participants to join WHO at a series of high-level events and spend time in an innovative health pavilion space. Focus will be placing the health threat from the climate crisis and the huge health gains that would come from stronger climate action at the centre of discussions. Climate change is already affecting people’s health and will continue to do so at an accelerating rate unless urgent action is taken, WHO said in a message from Geneva. “Climate change is making millions of people sick or more vulnerable to disease all over the world and the increasing destructiveness of extreme weather events disproportionately affects poor and marginalized communities,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It is crucial that leaders and decision makers come together at COP27 to put health at the heart of the negotiations,” he added. Read more: COP27: Bangladesh to reiterate call to materialize $100bn pledged for developing countries Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress, according to WHO. The direct damage costs to health (i.e., excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation), is estimated to be between US$ 2–4 billion per year by 2030. The rise in global temperature that has already occurred is leading to extreme weather events that bring intense heat waves and droughts, devastating floods and increasingly powerful hurricanes and tropical storms. The combination of these factors means the impact on human health is increasing and is likely to accelerate. But there is room for hope, particularly if governments take action now to honour the pledges made at Glasgow in November 2021 and to go further in resolving the climate crisis. WHO is calling on governments to lead a just, equitable and fast phase out of fossil fuels and transition to a clean energy future. There has also been encouraging progress on commitments to decarbonization and WHO is calling for the creation of a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty that would see coal and other fossil fuels harmful to the atmosphere phased out in a just and equitable way. This would represent one of the most significant contributions to climate change mitigation. Investment in clean energy will yield health gains that repay those investments twice over. There are proven interventions able to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, for instance applying higher standards for vehicle emissions, which have been calculated to save approximately 2.4 million lives per year, through improved air quality and reduce global warming by about 0.5 °C by 2050. The cost of renewable sources of energy has decreased significantly in the last few years, and solar energy is now cheaper than coal or gas in most major economies. WHO is custodian to 32 Sustainable Development Goal indicators, 17 of which are impacted by climate change or its drivers, and 16 of which specifically impact the health of children.

UN independent experts have said the outcomes of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Egypt are of critical importance, and they called on states to make sure that all decisions made, and actions taken, consider their human rights implications. "This, in turn, will lead to better policy-making in the area of climate change," they said in a statement from Geneva on Friday. The experts called on states to fully integrate human rights standards and principles into negotiations during the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) starting in Egypt on Sunday. "In 2015, states adopted the Paris Agreement, pledging to respect human rights in all climate actions. However, as the parties meet in Sharm el Sheikh for COP27, little progress has been made in the area of human rights, or climate actions," they said. The United Nations Human Rights Council has stressed that human rights obligations, standards and principles have the potential to inform and strengthen international, regional and national policy making in the area of climate change, promoting policy coherence, legitimacy and sustainable outcomes. However, human rights, and the financing required to realise these rights, have yet to be mainstreamed in climate change discussions, including the annual COPs. Climate change is negatively impacting the full and effective enjoyment of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments. Climate change is having a major impact on a wide range of human rights today, affecting mostly marginalised groups, and could have a cataclysmic impact in the future, unless ambitious actions are undertaken immediately. Among the human rights being threatened and violated are the rights to life, adequate food, safe drinking water and sanitation, the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including sexual and reproductive health, adequate housing, self-determination, just and favourable conditions of work, development, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and livelihoods, as well as the right to education and cultural rights. Climate change is also contributing to human rights violations with specific adverse impacts on women and girls and against groups in marginalised situations, such as migrants, minorities, indigenous peoples, people of African descent, older persons and persons with disabilities including albinism. Read more: Is it too late to prevent climate change? Climate change is exacerbating the risk of other human rights violations, including violence against women and girls, trafficking in persons, especially women and children, excessive use of force in the context of policing climate rallies and protests, racism and discrimination. Systemic racism and contemporary legacies of colonialism negatively impact the right to a healthy environment and continue to have an impact on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the right of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Lawyers and others working to address climate change face abuse, threats to their lives, and other risks. Climate change is also a major driver of forced displacement and renders the search for durable solutions significantly more challenging. States have taken important steps to recognise the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (which includes the right to a safe climate) as a human right, most recently in General Assembly resolution 76/300 of 29 July 2022. "We are deeply concerned by the lack of commitment by states that have been the primary historical contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. Current nationally determined contributions provided by parties to the Paris Agreement remain seriously inadequate to achieve the climate goals of the Paris Agreement," the experts said. The negative effects of failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions are disproportionately suffered by persons and communities who are already in a disadvantageous situation. And not enough financial resources are being allocated to these high-priority concerns. The UN independent experts called on states to urgently step up their mitigation actions (emissions reductions), in line with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capacities, as inadequate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is creating a human rights catastrophe. This would include ending fossil fuel expansion, and accelerating the phase-out of coal, oil and natural gas in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C as required under the Paris Agreement. It would also include regulating the emissions of businesses under their jurisdictions, and ensuring their courts are available to enforce these regulations. Read more: "Bangladesh should not have to carry the burden of climate change alone" The experts urged the states to include human rights considerations in their nationally determined contributions and other planning processes and ensure that market-based mechanisms have effective means for protecting human rights and effective compliance and redress mechanisms, including mandatory environmental and human rights due diligence laws and policies. They called on states to establish a loss and damage finance facility, and significantly step up funding to help particularly vulnerable developing countries, especially small island developing states and least developed countries, to cover the costs of loss and damage. The experts urged the states to call for climate finance to address mitigation and adaptation, fulfilling the $100 billion annual pledge and increasing it to meet the needs of climate-vulnerable states. The full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and civil society, including human rights defenders, grassroots organisations and women-led organisations in decision-making processes at all levels of the COP process has to be ensured, they said. "Indigenous peoples and civil society play an essential role in the advancement of climate action, and their voices must be heard." To ensure that climate policies, including those on adaptation, mitigation and financing, gender equality, the rights of the child, non-discrimination and racial justice, and ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls with diverse backgrounds in climate change mitigation actions at all levels have to be ensured, the experts added. They called on states to stay attuned to the impacts of climate change, as well as the design and implementation of mitigation and adaption measures on all human beings, so that all peoples are treated humanely and with dignity, and if forced to relocate or migrate because of the effects of climate change, they are able to rebuild their lives and livelihoods with dignity. The experts urged the states to expand opportunities for safe migration, including through a general right of admission and stay for people displaced by climate change, and pathways to citizenship. They also suggested including children and youth representatives in their delegations to COP 27 and future COPs, to ensure that young people have a say in their future.