Increasing demand for oil and fuel threatens African nations’ economies, analysis finds

Carbon Tracker thinktank says investors in fossil fuels on the continent would be left with stranded assets

Expanding oil and gas exports would threaten the economic stability of many African countries, new analysis has found, despite soaring fossil fuel prices.

Demand for fossil fuels is likely to fall sharply in the medium term, according to a report published on Monday by the Carbon Tracker thinktank. That makes relying on gas exports to fuel economic growth a short-term, risky strategy, while boosting solar power would prove a better long-term bet, the analysis found.

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Ethiopian rivals agree on humanitarian access for war-ravaged Tigray

Region is in the grip of a severe crisis due to a lack of food and medicine after a two-year conflict

Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan rebels have agreed to facilitate immediate humanitarian access to “all in need” in war-ravaged Tigray and neighbouring regions.

The agreement followed talks in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi this week on the full implementation of a deal signed between the warring sides 10 days ago to end the brutal two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia.

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Cop27: US ‘totally supportive’ of moves to address loss and damage, says Kerry – as it happened

US climate envoy John Kerry has said his country is ready to discuss the loss and damage at Cop27

After six years as the big cheese of UN climate negotiations, Patricia Espinosa has been enjoying walking the halls of power not quite as an ordinary Joe and apparently isn’t closely following the negotiations. “It has felt just amazing. I knew that as the [UNFCCC] executive secretary that I was missing so much, and it’s been a really wonderful experience.”

Espinosa might not be paying close attention, but we’re starting to see developed countries push back against this year’s hot topic, loss and damage, after developing nations laid out a unified case for why a funding mechanism separate to climate adaptation and mitigation is needed to address the climate catastrophes that can’t be averted. The US in particular has been accused of being a “bad faith actor” due to its long track record of disrupting and delaying progress on the issue.

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Russian oligarchs and companies under sanctions are among lobbyists at Cop27

The heavy presence of lobbyists from Moscow suggests Russia is using the climate talks to drum up business

Russian oligarchs and executives from multiple companies under international sanctions are among the lobbyists currently attending Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Among those at the pivotal climate talks are the billionaire and former aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is under UK sanctions, and the billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, the former head of the Russian fertiliser company the EuroChem group, who has been targeted with individual sanctions by the European Union which he disputed, calling them “absurd and nonsensical”.

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Bus crash kills 19 and injures six in northern Egypt

Vehicle carrying 35 people came off road and fell into canal in Aga, 70 miles north of Cairo

Nineteen people were killed and six others injured when a bus drove into a canal in northern Egypt on Saturday, the country’s health ministry said.

The bus was carrying 35 people when it came off a highway and fell into the Mansoura canal in Aga, in the northern Dakahlia region, according to security sources.

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Imprisoned activist’s lawyer denied access at Egyptian jail during climate summit – as it happened

British-Egyptian Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has been on hunger strike for months, stopped drinking water when Cop27 began

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We promised you the full story on fossil fuel lobbyists, and here it is.

There are more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists at the Cop27 climate conference, a rise of more than 25% from last year and outnumbering any one frontline community affected by the climate crisis.

While the average delegation at Cop1 was 88% male and 12% female, this has shifted over time. For example, Cops 23 to 25 all had an average gender balance of 62% male to 38% female, while Cop26 had a balance of 64%-36%.

The provisional gender balance of Cop27 is similar, clocking it at 63% male to 37% female.

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Angola urges UK to take new measures on poverty

Call over protecting most vulnerable citizens comes before UN review of Britain’s human rights record

Angola has urged the UK to adopt an emergency poverty strategy to protect its most vulnerable citizens from the cost-of-living crisis.

The call – from a country where more than half of its population of 34 million people live on less than $2 (£1.75) a day, on behalf of citizens of one of the world’s richest – was among several concerns raised before a UN review of the UK’s human rights record today.

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Digital Benin project reunites bronzes looted by British soldiers

Comprehensive database of Benin bronzes held by museums raises questions about where they belong

Cheerfully gnashing their magnificent fangs as they stand side by side, the two bronze leopards look back on a journey that was as adventurous as it was cruelly absurd.

Looted by British soldiers on a punitive expedition to the west African kingdom of Benin in 1897, the bronzes were shipped to the UK, where they spent some time guarding the fireplace of army captain George William Neville’s Weybridge home. They were later put in display at Moma in New York and bought by a French art collector – who eventually sold them back to the colonial administration in Lagos in 1952 with a considerable mark-up.

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‘Significant’ moves on climate disaster funds lift Cop27 hopes

Small but symbolic moves at summit where finance is critical include new loss and damage money and debt relief

A series of symbolic moves on climate finance at Cop27 suggests positive momentum could be starting to build on a pivotal issue at the UN summit in Egypt.

The UK said it would allow some debt payment deferrals for countries hit by climate disasters, while Austria and New Zealand put forward funding for loss and damage, which is the cost of rebuilding in poorer nations after unavoidable climate impacts.

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Cop27: ‘It’s humiliating’ – Indigenous voices say they are being ignored at climate summit – as it happened

A Kulkalgal activist from the Torres Strait Islands has said Indigenous people are ‘fighting for their homes’ as conference discussions focus on climate finance

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More photos from today:

Xie Zhenhua continues to say that Beijing is willing to contribute to a mechanism for compensating poorer countries for loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.

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Climate crisis will have huge impact on Africa’s economies, study says

As Cop27 discusses climate finance, report says continent’s GDP growth could fall by two-thirds this century

African countries, which are the least responsible for the global climate crisis, face seeing their GDP growth rate fall by up to 64% by the end of the century, according to research – even if the world succeeds in limiting global heating to 1.5C.

As world leaders hustle over climate action at the UN summit in Egypt, a study commissioned by Christian Aid has found that burning fossil fuels at the current rate will have a huge impact on the finances of African countries. The average hit to GDP per capita could be as much as 34%, finds the report, while the effect on GDP growth will lead to an average 20% reduction in rates by 2050 and a huge 64% on average by 2100.

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Cop27: Ukraine president says peace is vital for saving climate; US called out for blocking ‘loss and damage’ funds – live

Volodymyr Zelenskiy appears at climate summit via video link; climate experts say US has acted ‘in bad faith’ for decades

I’ve been looking at what some climate scientists on Twitter have been saying about Cop27. Here is a small selection:

Dr Chandni Singh has been checking out the displays at different country pavilions, including one from Pakistan.

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Evidence suggests reporter killed in Kenya was targeted, says Pakistan

Kenyan police decline to respond to interior minister’s comments regarding death of Arshad Sharif

Pakistan’s interior minister has said evidence suggests a prominent Pakistani journalist was the victim of a targeted killing in Kenya, rather than an accidental shooting, though he said he still needed more information on the incident.

The Kenyan police spokesperson Bruno Shioso declined to respond to Rana Sanaullah’s comments on Tuesday regarding the death of the TV journalist Arshad Sharif, who was shot dead on the evening of 23 October on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

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Spain asked to explain deaths at Moroccan border crossing

Doubt cast on official version of events after deadly crush at border fence in which at least 23 died

The Spanish government is facing growing calls to explain how at least 23 people died during a mass storming of the border fence between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla almost five months ago.

MPs who visited the border on a fact-finding trip have appeared to corroborate reports – first aired in a BBC Africa Eye investigation broadcast last week – that dead bodies were dragged out of a Spanish-controlled area by Moroccan police.

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Influencer ‘Ray Hushpuppi’ jailed over plan to launder $300m

Ramon Abbas, described by FBI as one of world’s most prolific money launderers, sentenced to 11 years

A social media influencer who called himself Ray Hushpuppi and flaunted a lavish lifestyle fuelled by his efforts to launder millions of stolen dollars has been sentenced in Los Angeles to more than 11 years in federal prison.

Ramon Abbas, 40, also was ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.7m in restitution to two fraud victims, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.

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Cop26 one year on: how much progress has been made?

As the UN’s Cop27 summit begins in Egypt, there are warnings more must be done to avert climate breakdown

Last year’s UN Cop26 climate talks in Scotland were framed by John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy on the climate crisis, as the “last best hope for the world to get its act together” and avert climate breakdown. As world leaders gather in Egypt for Cop27, evidence suggests they have yet to fully do so.

The Glasgow conference drew collective promises by governments to “phase down” coal use, curb deforestation, advance remedial payments to developing countries hit hardest by floods, heatwaves and droughts, and to come back the following year with more ambitious emissions reduction targets.

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Alaa Abd el-Fattah: family await news on day two of prison water strike

British-Egyptian activist and figurehead of 2011 uprising now refusing water after six-month hunger strike

The family of the British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah are demanding proof of life, after waiting hours in front of the desert prison where he is currently held, hoping to receive a letter that would provide information about his condition as he continues to refuse all food and water while delegates gather for Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Abd el-Fattah has been on hunger strike for more than six months, and told his family shortly before the beginning of the UN climate conference that he would begin a water strike on Sunday. His letter from prison would indicate proof of life on his second day without water, after more than six months without more than 100 calories a day.

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World is on ‘highway to climate hell’, UN chief warns at Cop27 summit

António Guterres tells leaders ‘global climate fight will be won or lost in this crucial decade – on our watch’

Humanity is on a “highway to climate hell”, the UN secretary general has warned, saying the fight for a liveable planet will be won or lost in this decade.

António Guterres told world leaders at the opening of the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt on Monday: “We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing … And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.

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Cop27 wifi in Egypt blocks human rights and key news websites

Attendees say they are unable to visit Human Rights Watch and other sites needed during climate talks

Attendees at the Cop27 climate meeting have found that the conference internet connection blocks access to the global rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) as well as other key news websites needed for information during the talks.

HRW is due to lead a panel discussion at Cop27 along with Amnesty International, whose website is accessible on the conference wifi. The list of blocked sites also includes the blogging platform Medium, Egypt’s lone independent news outlet, Mada Masr, and the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera.

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At least 19 people dead after plane crashes into Lake Victoria

Precision Air plane with 43 people onboard came down in bad weather on its approach to Bukoba airport

At least 19 people have died after a plane plunged into Lake Victoria in Tanzania during bad weather shortly before it was due to land in the north-west city of Bukoba, according to the state-owned Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation.

“There was an accident involving a Precision Air plane which … crashed into water about 100 metres from the airport,” the regional police commander William Mwampaghale told reporters at Bukoba airport.

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