At climate summit, president raps ‘double standards’

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: President Ranil Wickremesinghe said governments were quick to divert billions of dollars to the war in Ukraine, but slow to spend serious money on climate change.

“Double standards are unacceptable,” he said.

World leaders, policymakers and delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Egypt at the COP27 U.N. climate summit, which delegates kicked off with a deal to discuss compensating poor nations for mounting damage linked to global warming.

Scores of other heads of state and government spoke on Monday and Tuesday but many of the world’s biggest polluters —- including the United States, China and India – have yet to hit the podium.

The US delegation opened its pavilion at the COP27 venue on Tuesday and Special Envoy John Kerry was making the rounds.