• Disrupting Power Since 2015
  • Donate
  • Login
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
  • Login
  • Register
Canary
MEDIA THAT DISRUPTS
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
MANAGE SUBSCRIPTION
SUPPORT
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
Canary
No Result
View All Result

COP27 irony overload as UN chief calls for ‘solidarity’ while Egypt restricts protest

Steve Topple by Steve Topple
7 November 2022
in Analysis, Global
Reading Time: 3 mins read
163 9
A A
0
Home Global Analysis
319
SHARES
2.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

At the COP27 climate summit, the UN boss has called for “climate solidarity” as the world faces a global disaster. However, at the same time, the authoritarian Egyptian state is cracking down on protesters at the conference.

COP27: ‘solidarity’ or die

As AFP reported, on Monday 7 November UN chief Antonio Guterres gave a stark warning to world leaders at COP27. He said that humanity is in “the fight of our lives” as climate change intensifies droughts, floods, and heatwaves. Guterres also said the international community faces a stark choice. He told leaders at the COP27 summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh:

Cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact, or a Collective Suicide Pact.

He noted that:

We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.

Guterres called for a “historic” deal between rich countries and emerging economies that would aim to reduce emissions and keep the temperature rise to the more ambitious Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.

He said the target should be to provide renewable and affordable energy for all, calling on the top emitters in particular, the United States and China, to step up their efforts.

A ‘war on nature’

The UN chief also addressed the massive biodiversity loss that has seen human activity drive the planet’s sixth mass extinction crisis. He said:

Let’s not forget that the war on nature is in itself a massive violation of human rights

Guterres summed up by saying the climate fight:

will be won or lost in this crucial decade on our watch.

However, for all Guterres’s talk of solidarity, the Egyptian government isn’t letting ordinary people show it – because it is heavily cracking down on protests at COP27.

No COP27 protest unless it’s standing around doing nothing

Middle East Monitor reported that Egyptian authorities:

have banned activists at the UN’s COP27 Climate Summit from mocking the heads of state and government officials taking part. Anyone violating the banned list will be punished, they warned. The details were provided on the website of the Egyptian presidency of the summit

The website states a load of rules around COP27 protests. These include that people cannot use:

  • Any signs, chants, slogans, audio/visual or print materials that promote or incite to hatred, discrimination, racism or violence.
  • Illegal and/or violent acts including acts of verbal and physical abuse and intimidation or bullying
  • Satirical drawings of Heads of States

Egyptian authorities have also said that protesters cannot disrupt:

the flow of movement of individuals or vehicles.

They have also said that people cannot do anything:

derisory to the UN, any of their Member States, organizations or any individual or criticism that would go against basic rules of decorum

‘Greenwashing’, authoritarian-style

So, it’s unclear what kind of protest Egyptian authorities will let you do – apart from standing around quietly.  As Middle East Monitor noted, this is hardly unsurprising from the authoritarian Egyptian government, though. As it wrote:

Human rights organisations have criticised the deterioration of human rights in Egypt, with prisons “filled with tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience and defenders of human and environmental rights” held in extremely harsh conditions.

Little wonder, then, that climate rebel Greta Thunberg refused to attend COP27. So, for all Guterres’s talk of climate solidarity, clearly this can only be on the Egyptian government’s terms. This is not climate action. As Thunberg said, this is “greenwashing” – and it’s ignoring Egyptian human rights abuses in the process.

Featured image via Sky News – YouTube and Sky News – YouTube

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Share128Tweet80
Previous Post

Calls for transparency after death in Stoke Newington police station

Next Post

Spiralling rough sleeping in Devon may represent a bigger problem

Next Post
An image of rough sleeping

Spiralling rough sleeping in Devon may represent a bigger problem

Suella Braverman

MPs demand investigation into climate change denial group linked to Suella Braverman

Rishi Sunak at COP27

Campaign groups left ‘underwhelmed’ by Rishi Sunak's ‘tepid’ COP27 speech

The DWP and Universal Credit logos in reference to a benefits crackdown

If you claim these benefits you might not get a cost of living payment

DWP logo and hands counting money representing cost of living payments

DWP giving less disabled people cost of living payments this time

Please login to join discussion
Horoscope today: your 24-hour briefing for life, love, and more
Horoscopes

Horoscope today: your 24-hour briefing for life, love, and more

by Steve Topple
21 May 2025
DWP open source banking
Analysis

The DWP is quietly trying to get a private company to connect it to disabled people’s bank accounts

by Steve Topple
20 May 2025
gideon's chariots Gaza
Analysis

Gideon’s Chariots: leaked plan shows Israel intentionally pushing Gaza to famine and forced displacement

by Alaa Shamali
20 May 2025
Gideon's Chariots Gaza
Analysis

“عربات جدعون.. مخطط إسرائيلي يقود غزة نحو مجاعة مُمنهجة وتهجير قسري

by Alaa Shamali
20 May 2025
Our friends at Pauzeradio have got the perfect Reggae clothing line for this summer
Lifestyle

Our friends at Pauzeradio have got the perfect Reggae clothing line for this summer

by Steve Topple
20 May 2025
  • Contact
  • About & FAQ
  • Get our Daily News Email
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

The Canary
PO Box 71199
LONDON
SE20 9EX

Canary Media Ltd – registered in England. Company registration number 09788095.

For guest posting, contact [email protected]

For other enquiries, contact: [email protected]

The Canary is owned and run by independent journalists and volunteers, NOT offshore billionaires.

You can write for us, or support us by making a regular or one-off donation.

© Canary Media Ltd 2024, all rights reserved | Website by Monster | Hosted by Krystal | Privacy Settings

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion

© 2023 Canary - Worker's co-op.

Before you go, have you seen...?

Horoscope today: your 24-hour briefing for life, love, and more
Horoscopes
Steve Topple

Horoscope today: your 24-hour briefing for life, love, and more

DWP open source banking
Analysis
Steve Topple

The DWP is quietly trying to get a private company to connect it to disabled people’s bank accounts

gideon's chariots Gaza
Analysis
Alaa Shamali

Gideon’s Chariots: leaked plan shows Israel intentionally pushing Gaza to famine and forced displacement

Gideon's Chariots Gaza
Analysis
Alaa Shamali

“عربات جدعون.. مخطط إسرائيلي يقود غزة نحو مجاعة مُمنهجة وتهجير قسري

ADVERTISEMENT
Analysis
Nathan Spears

Vote for the Press Photograph of the Year 2024

Image by Burkard Meyendriesch from Pixabay
Feature
Nathan Spears

Why Santiago Ways is the Leading Choice for Walking the Camino de Santiago

Environment
Nathan Spears

EU elections point to growing public desire for new policymaking approach in Brussels