Climate backsliding fears and a rallying call: what happened on day eight at Cop27

Previous pledges are being picked over by countries and more than 30 media titles urge radical thinkingCop27 live - latest news updatesThe Cop27 talks have been dominated by fears that countries are backsliding on their commitments to tackle the climate crisis, as the first tentative drafts started to emerge of key potential decisions. The situation is still highly fluid, but pledges on 1.5C, on funding for adaptation, and on the $100bn agreed to be delivered by rich countries by 2020, are being picked over.The British-Egyptian prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah has ended his hunger strike, his sister has said. Sanaa Seif, who spoke at Cop27 last week, tweeted that she had received a letter from her brother, which said he would "explain everything" on Thursday when his family visits.Indonesia, the world's fifth largest greenhouse gas emitter, will be helped with $20bn (about ?17bn) of public and private finance to shut coal power plants, the US, Japan and partners announced. Experts called for transparency and respect for human rights to be built into the deal.The Guardian and more than 30 international media titles in more than 20 countries published a joint editorial calling for radical thinking on how to fund climate action. Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, which led the initiative, said: "With Cop27 taking place in Egypt, we wanted to publish an ambitious editorial that highlights how strongly many different news organisations, and our readers, feel about the climate crisis." Continue reading...