Planet on ‘highway to climate hell’ as COP27 leaders summit launches in Egypt

The United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres. Warned that the planet is on a “highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator”, as the world leaders' summit began at COP27, the annual UN climate change conference.

“The clock is ticking. We are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing. Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” he said at the opening ceremony of the summit.

He called for a “historic” climate solidarity pact between developed and developing economies, “in which all countries make an extra effort to reduce emissions this decade" in line with the goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.