COP26 President Alok Sharma speaks during the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, Nov. 13, 2021.Photo: Xinhua

A barrage of global crises must not deflect attention from urgent climate action, the UN's climate chief warned Monday, as negotiators from nearly 200 nations began talks in Germany against the backdrop of Russia's military operation in Ukraine.

The conference will set the stage for a fresh round of major UN talks later in 2022 in Egypt, as climate-driven weather extremes are increasingly felt across the planet.

But nations also face a formidable collection of inter-related challenges, including the Ukraine conflict, energy, food and economic crises, as well as the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Issuing a call for international unity to hold firm, outgoing UN climate change chief Patricia Espinosa told delegates not to lose focus or give up hope.

"We must understand that climate change is moving exponentially," she said, opening the Monday to June 16 meeting.

"We can no longer afford to make just incremental progress. We must move these negotiations along more quickly. The world expects it." 

Governments have already accepted that climate change is a grave threat to humanity and the planet, and have advocated immediate action to cut fossil fuel emissions and prepare for the growing impacts of warming.

The summary to 2022's landmark climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that any further delay in action "will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all."

But as things stand, the world is unlikely to be able to meet the Paris climate deal's commitment to limit warming "well below" 2 C above pre-industrial levels, and preferably 1.5 C.

"There is this disconnect between the scientific evidence of global crisis in the making, of potentially rushing towards unmanageable climate impacts, versus the lack of action," Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told AFP.

"This is a deep worry."

While the conference in the German city of Bonn is largely aimed at preparing for the UN COP27 meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh in November, a number of key issues are up for debate.

Among them is a push for countries to speed up their timetable for updating their carbon-cutting plans, to close the gap between warming targets and emissions-cutting action. 

In May, an analysis from nonprofit groups found that countries in the G20 group of major economies had yet to strengthen greenhouse gas reduction goals, despite agreeing to revisiting their plans. 

AFP