There must be ‘tangible progress’ on climate issues at Cop27, says Sturgeon

Scotland’s First Minister has said there needs to be “tangible progress” on climate change at Cop27.

Nicola Sturgeon has attended the first days of talks at the key climate summit in Egypt this week, with Glasgow playing host to world leaders last year.

The First Minister announced a funding boost of £5 million on Tuesday to combat the impact of climate change on developing countries.

Speaking at an event hosted by the New York Times in Sharm El-Sheikh alongside European Climate Foundation chief executive Laurence Tubiana and Liberal International president Hakima El Haite on Tuesday, the First Minister said the mood at the conference was “increasingly impatient, frustrated and, yes in some quarters, bordering on justifiable anger”.

“There is a lot at stake here,” she said.

“It’s really, really important that we don’t allow optimism to be blind faith, because we’re nowhere near where we should be right now.”

The First Minister said the Paris Agreement had come “too late” and the world was “not on track” to meet its 1.5C upper target.

“The world is on a path much closer to 2.5C – we need to be honest about that,” she said.

The First Minister added: “I also think there are real issues around trust and faith.”

Ms Sturgeon said the inability to deliver the promise of 100 billion dollars annually to developing countries in climate financing – as was agreed at Cop15 in Copenhagen in 2009 – has eroded trust in developing nations.

She also said developing nations felt they had to “come and plead” with bigger economies “to acknowledge, let alone address” the issue of loss and damage.

“There is a real need to make tangible progress, to have real accountability – obviously for the achievement of what we all need to achieve, but along the way to retain a sense of trust and faith in the process,” she said.

“I think that trust and faith is what is on the line here in Egypt over the next couple of weeks.

“We’re not going to achieve everything that people want to achieve here, but – whether it’s on loss and damage or commitments around emissions reductions – there must be a tangible sense of progress and not allow other big important issues to divert attention.”

The First Minister added that solutions to issues such as energy security – which are currently at the fore due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and spiking gas prices – are the same solutions that could help to mitigate climate change.