Sunday 6 November saw Cop27 begin in Egypt. After the long running will he/won't he attend debacle involving Rishi Sunak we have ended up with not one, but two of the UK's 2022 prime ministers in Sharm el-Sheikh.

So what's the state-of-play with the climate agenda as the climate conference gets going?

UK and US lagging behind with their share of climate funding

The world's richer countries  pledged to give US$100bn per year to a climate fund for developing countries. However analysis shows that the UK is among a group of countries who have fallen well short of their commitments. The US, the UK, Canada and Australia have all fallen billions of dollars short on their 'fair share' according to Carbon Brief who carried out the assessment. Developing countries had little part in causing climate change and the funding from rich countries is supposed to help build trust in the idea of combined global action.

Europe's climate warming at twice global rate

A report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows that temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the last 30 years. Between 1991 and 2021, temperatures in Europe have risen by an average of 0.5C per decade which has had physical repercussions including Alpine glaciers losing 30 metres in ice thickness and the Greenland ice sheet melting contributing to rising sea levels. Extreme weather events including floods and storms have directly affected 500,000 people and caused more than $50bn in damage.

Super rich emit as much greenhouse gasses as France

Analysis commissioned by Oxfam into the carbon impact of investments of 125 billionaires shows that each of their investment emissions produced 3m tonnes of CO2, a million times more than the average emissions of the bottom 90% of earners. In total, the 125 members of the super rich emitted the equivalent of the whole country of France. Oxfam has called for the investments of the super rich to be regulated and a wealth tax to be introduced on investments in polluting industries.

Our plea to the world leaders at Cop27

It's hard to imagine there being more at stake than there is at Cop27. The chances of keeping the temperature rise within 1.5C as committed to at Cop27 already looks slim, with a rise of between 2C and 3C on the cards if radical action isn't taken. So everyone at Planet People is calling on the world leaders at Cop27 to make difficult and binding decisions that will prevent the extreme impact that climate scientists are predicting if things continue how they are.

It's in your hands now, don't let us, and future generations, down.