Cop27: Boris Johnson to attack ‘corrosive cynicism’ on net zero at summit – live

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As the conference begins my colleague Damian Carrington has been working with Carbon Brief of an analysis of climate finance which reveals that the US, UK, Canada and Australia have fallen billions of dollars short of their “fair share” of climate funding for developing countries, analysis shows.

The assessment, by Carbon Brief, compares the share of international climate finance provided by rich countries with their share of carbon emissions to date, a measure of their responsibility for the climate crisis.

He points out: “The issue of climate finance will be critical to progress at the Cop27 summit, which began on Sunday in Egypt. Developing countries did little to cause the climate emergency, making funding from rich countries vital to create the trust needed for combined global action. The rich countries accept vulnerable countries face a “life or death situation” and need far more than $100bn but delivery of the money has been contentious and slow.”

The new analysis covers the 24 “Annex II” countries that account for 40% of historical emissions and are obliged to give climate finance under the UN climate treaty, including all of the G7 large economies. It shows some countries gave more than the share of the $100bn indicated by their past emissions.

Switzerland’s funding was more than four times higher, and France and Norway’s was more than three times the amount. Japan, one of the largest providers of funding, supplied $13bn, more than double the amount indicated. However, the funding from Japan and France was largely in loans, whereas that from the US, Canada, Australia and the UK were mostly grants. Grants are strongly preferred by developing countries, which often already carry high levels of debt.

The opening ceremony will take place at 12.15pm EET (10.15am GMT) today, kicked off with a speech from Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt.

Beside him will be Ant?nio Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations, who spoke to the Guardian last week about this conference and climate change, saying: “At the present level [of emissions], we will be doomed. We are approaching tipping points, and tipping points that will make [climate change] irreversible. The damage that would not allow us to recover.”

Guterres has become well-known for his outspoken speeches on climate change. Last summer, he gave a meeting of world leaders a simple warning.

“We have a choice – collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands.”

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, will be with them.

I’m Bibi van der Zee and I’ll be following events this morning. If you’ve got any stories or thoughts on Cop27 that you’d like to share with us all, I’m on bibi.vanderzee@theguardian.com or @bibivanderzee on Twitter.

Good morning! The 27th Conference of the Parties – or Cop27 as you probably know it – is under way at last in the Sharm-el-Sheikh resort in Egypt.

Today and tomorrow, world leaders will address Cop, with the British PM, Rishi Sunak due to speak at 4pm.

This morning, however, the UK’s last but one prime minister, Boris Johnson, will be making a speech. My colleague, Fiona Harvey, writes:

Boris Johnson will attack the “corrosive cynicism” on net zero that is hampering UK, and global, efforts to tackle the climate crisis, in a speech at the UN Cop27 climate summit on Monday.

In a swipe at members of his own Conservative party, the former UK prime minister will contrast the success and spirit of optimism at Cop26 in Glasgow last November with the failures of governments – including the UK – to follow through on promises since.

“Because the spike in oil and gas prices – and the consequent global inflation, the hikes in the cost of fertiliser and food, have had an impact here and everywhere, they have led some naysayers to a corrosive cynicism about net zero,” he will warn.