Climate opportunity awaits

This year’s 27th Conference of the Parties climate meeting opens on Nov 6 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. –AP

THE COP26 UN climate conference a year ago in Glasgow forged some promising agreements and announcements to push ahead with climate action. This year’s 27th Conference of the Parties climate meeting (COP27) – which opens today in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt – takes place in a very different world, following Russia’s war in Ukraine and the resulting turmoil in energy markets.

Increasing strategic competition, including between China and the West, worry about energy supply security and the struggle with high energy prices take precedence right now. These are spanners thrown into the works of global climate policy. But in some ways, they may make it easier to act on climate change in the longer term.