As countries convene at climate summit in Egypt, reports show the world is wildly off track. Here’s what to watch at COP27
Mourners pay their respects at the crash site where a passenger plane crashed in Mogadishu on 2 December 2018 © Mohammed Farrah/Reuters
Nahal Olad Ibrahim is just about to open the door of her house in Mogadishu, Somalia, when she smells a sweet aroma on the air. She knows immediately what it is: a hot coffee made from coffee beans picked from her garden.
“After four days without bread, we have now been given the strength to prepare coffee,” says Olad, whose family recently earned the status of “first country” in the world to produce coffee. “This day is all thanks to the Lord.”
Nahal is referring to the recent arrival to Mogadishu of the International Coffee Agreement on Climate Change (COP 27), which was signed in New York in December. Officially called The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the agreement is the result of nearly six years of negotiations. It’s a momentous milestone for Somalia, which was the first country to sign the Kyoto Protocol two years ago. It is also symbolic for Somalia, which sits on the world’s largest coffee bean coffee reserve.
It’s about time
If the coffee agreement is a symbol of change, the weather is a symbol of more change to come.
As the UN Climate Summit in New York nears its conclusion, with the COP27 set to take place in the city of Ramsar near Cairo, the world is about to take an important step forward. The coffee agreement could help to transform the lives of at least half a billion people who live in areas exposed to rising temperatures that are rising faster than any other on the planet.
If the coffee agreement is a symbol of change, the weather is a symbol of more change to come.
In March, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made an alarming prediction: global warming is “very likely to have dangerous climate impacts, with serious food and water threats and with significant threats to human health and well-being.” The report was based on the most up-to-date science and was the first to predict that it might take as much as a century for the planet to
