The latest on COP27– this year's annual UN summit on climate change

Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt): The head of the United Nations warned Monday that the world is on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator unless drastic action is taken to curb global warming.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders gathered for this year's climate summit in Egypt said humanity must cooperate or perish, saying rich industrial nations must lead the way.

But Guterres said emerging economies must also do their bit to bend the global emissions curve, calling out the world's two biggest emitters, the United States and China, have a particular responsibility.

The UN urged countries to forge a climate solidarity pact that includes giving poor countries sufficient financial support to cope with the effects of global warming, and reiterated his call for a tax on the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi warned that the planet has become a world of suffering" in his opening remarks to leaders at the summit.

Climate change will never stop without our intervention...Our time here is limited and we must use every second that we have," he said. El-Sisi also called for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo called for wealthy nations who are more responsible for climate change to pay and compensate African nations that are among the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change.

The damage is obvious, he told The Associated Press on Monday. Those who are responsible should be very, very much aware of the need to compensate others.

He said his government needs around 561 billion to implement the country's transition plan to clean energy, and at the same time avoid job losses in the oil and gas sector.

The World Trade Organisation chief is acknowledging that trade contributes to carbon emissions but says a new WTO report estimates that lifting tariffs and other barriers to trade in environmentally friendly energy products could both boost exports and reduce emissions.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says the Geneva-based trade body's latest World Trade Report, whose release was timed for Monday's opening of the UN climate conference, found that trade has helped prices of solar electricity to plunge 97 per cent since 1990.

However, trade, like most economic activities, emits greenhouse gases and CO2 emissions linked to international goods and services exports accounted for 30% of global carbon emissions as of 2018, the report said.

The WTO chief acknowledged the perception that trade contributes to global emissions.

That's exactly what we want to tackle here: That trade is seen as contributing to the carbon emissions. And this is true, she told reporters at the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

But on the other hand, you couldn't solve the climate crisis without trade. And that's the part of the equation that has not been looked at. (AP)