Berlin hosts envoys for climate talks amid historic heat wave in Western Europe

With the world reeling from the economic fallout of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, senior officials from 40 countries met Monday in Berlin for heart-to-heart talks on how to stay focused on fighting climate change and addressing its impact.

Organizers have billed the two-day gathering as an opportunity to rebuild trust between rich and poor nations ahead of this year’s U.N. climate summit in Egypt, after technical talks last month achieved little progress on key issues such as climate aid for developing countries.

“Many of the poorest and most vulnerable countries in the world are experiencing severe climate impacts now,” Germany climate envoy Jennifer Morgan told The Associated Press. “The question is how to support them in both adapting to those impacts and when they experience real losses and damages. We must also show more solidarity.”

Developing countries are still waiting for rich nations to provide $100 billion in climate aid each year, a target they were meant to reach by 2020.

Big polluters, however, have also long resisted the idea that they should pay for the destruction their greenhouse gas emissions are causing around the world.

The closed-doors talks in Berlin kicks off with experts delivering a presentation on the issue of “loss and damage ” to ministers, who will then break into small groups to discuss and listen to each other in the hope of building trust ahead of November’s U.N. summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.

The meeting in Berlin comes as scientists say the extreme heat slamming large parts of the northern hemisphere in the past few weeks could become the new normal in summer if global warming continues.

“As this meeting is taking place, parts of Europe are baking, indeed they’re burning; and sadly, it’s an experience that is all too familiar to many millions across the globe already,” said Alok Sharma, the British official who led last year’s climate talks in Glasgow. He told delegates as the meeting opened: “My plea to you all is, please, let’s speed up our work.”

“It is incumbent upon us in these uncertain times to act swiftly to ensure that climate action remains at the top of the international agenda, and that the current state of affairs is not taken as a pretext to backtrack or renege on previous commitments — especially those related to supporting developing countries,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who will chair the Sharm el-Sheikh summit.

China was taking part in the Berlin meeting. Russia was not invited.

The question of energy sources endangered by Russia’s war in Ukraine looms over the talks.

Environmental activists warn that recent efforts by countries such as Germany to tap new sources of fossil fuels could undermine countries’ already fragile climate actions. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to discuss buying liquefied natural gas from Egypt with the country’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Berlin on Monday, just a few miles from where the climate talks are being held.

“The Russian war of aggression is forcing us to take short-term decisions we don’t like, including the increased use of coal for a very limited period of time,” said Morgan, who was previously the head of Greenpeace International.

“But we are not only sticking rock-solidly to our climate goals — we are accelerating the energy transition and will phase-out the use of fossil energy even faster,” she added, citing a newly approved plan to ramp up solar and wind power generation in Germany.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, likewise, comes to the talks following setbacks suffered in the U.S. by President Joe Biden in his efforts to regulate pollution and boost renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

Extreme heat warning goes into effect in UK; Wildfires spread in France

Britain’s first-ever extreme heat warning is in effect for large parts of England as authorities prepare for record high temperatures that are already disrupting travel, health care and schools.

The “red” alert will last throughout Monday and Tuesday when temperatures may reach 40 C for the first time, posing a risk of serious illness and even death among healthy people, according to the U.K. Met Office, the country’s weather service.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Britain is 38.7 C, a record set in 2019. Train operators are asking customers not to travel unless absolutely necessary because the heat is likely to warp rails and disrupt power supplies, leading to severe delays.

France is scrambling more water-bombing planes and hundreds more firefighters to combat spreading wildfires being fed by hot swirling winds from the searing heat wave.

With winds changing direction, authorities in southwestern France announced plans on Monday to evacuate more towns and move out 3,500 people at risk of finding themselves in the path of the raging flames. Three additional water-bombing planes were joining six others already making repeated runs over the flames and dense clouds of smoke.

The government said more than 200 reinforcements were also being added to a 1,500-strong force of firefighters battling night and day to contain the fires tearing through the Gironde region’s tinder-dry pine forests.