COP27: Causes for concern, and hope, ahead of the big climate summit

A year on from the make-or-break climate conference in Glasgow, nations have failed to make progress of cutting emissions. But there are reasons for optimism from beyond the meeting rooms

ON 6 NOVEMBER, the next international climate summit, called COP27, will begin in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Global leaders will once again shake hands, smile for the cameras and get down to the difficult business of negotiating how to mitigate global heating at the end of a year when its devastating effects became more obvious than ever before.

Last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, UK, was billed as the world’s last chance to keep the goal of restricting warming to 1.5°C alive. The Glasgow Climate Pact called on countries to come up with more ambitious plans for limiting or …