Cop27: imprisoned activist’s lawyer denied access at Egyptian jail during climate summit – live | Cop27

Imprisoned activist’s lawyer denied access at Egyptian jail

Ruth Michaelson

Khaled Ali, the lawyer of imprisoned British-Egyptian hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah, said that he has arrived at the prison where Abd el-Fattah was held but was denied access to visit him.

Ali has been unable to get access to see Abd el-Fattah since early 2020, when the British-Egyptian democracy activist was detained without charge following a spate of anti-corruption demonstrations in Egypt.

The veteran human rights lawyer and former Egyptian presidential candidate said earlier today that he was suddenly informed by Egypt’s public prosecutor that his repeated requests to visit his client in detention had been granted, and he immediately set off for the desert prison two hours outside of Cairo.

When he arrived, he says he was told by guards that the prosecutor’s permission dated from last night, and that he is required to have permission to enter from the same day.

Abd el-Fattah was sentenced last year with “spreading false news,” for sharing a social media post about torture, although Ali and his other defence lawyers were not given access to his case file prior to the ruling, which saw Abd el-Fattah imprisoned for a further five years.

A figurehead of the 2011 uprisings, Abd el-Fattah began a hunger strike in April in protest at his detention conditions, amid increasing demands from British officials to gain access to him while incarcerated. Egypt has stonewalled these requests.

Following six months on hunger strike, Abd el-Fattah told his family he would stop drinking water on the day that COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh began. Earlier today, prison officials told his family that he had “undergone a medical intervention with the knowledge of a judicial authority,” suggesting that he had been subject to either force-feeding or intravenous rehydration without his consent, a form of torture.

Nikhita Chulani

An interesting video here, where activist Ulaiasi Tuikoro explains why loss and damage funds are important for Fiji.

Ulaiasi Tuikoro, a young activist from Fiji, who has been demonstrating at Cop27 said loss and damage is “everything about me”.

“I have lost a lot. I’ve lived through many cyclones. It’s hard to recover from that so for me loss and damage is everything I am.” Tuikoro said not everyone is paying their fair share and loss and damage would help save “whatever we have left”.

“In the Pacific we’ve got this culture of not wanting to complain a lot, but we’re not complaining, we are demanding our place and survival.

“We have tears of resilience […] and are pleading to our world leaders to save what we can.”

In Fiji, the climate crisis means dozens of villages could soon be underwater. Kate Lyon’s writes on how to move a country.

I am signing off for the afternoon and my colleague Natalie Hanman is taking over to guide you through events into this evening.

It’s been a colourful day so far at Cop27 and there will be more news to come, so stay tuned to Natalie’s updates.

• There is a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists at Cop this year. There are 600 of them, an increase of more than 25% on last year and they outnumber any one frontline community affected by the climate crisis.

• Obviously, protesters are not happy about this and called for the “criminal” fossil fuel representatives to be booted out of Cop.

• Some UK politicians made the rounds, with net zero tsar Chris Skidmore fitting in no less than six events. The business secretary, Grant Shapps, was there, too, answering questions about UK oil and gas exploration, and the Cop26 president Alok Sharma addressed a couple of panels.

• My colleague Damian Carrington brought us two pieces of good news; first that Israel, Lebanon and Iraq have teamed up to reduce emissions, and that Norway is shutting down plans for a large oilfield.

• The US speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made some rather extraordinary comments in which she said Republican politicians believe climate breakdown is a “hoax”.

• Guardian reporter Nina Lakhani spent much of the day with protesters, who were wearing white in solidarity with murdered and jailed environment defenders around the world. Egypt is responsible for a few of those imprisonments, notably the hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah. My other colleague Ruth Michaelson reported that his lawyer managed to secure a visit with Abd el-Fattah today, who, it has been rumoured, was recently force-fed.

Have a great rest of the afternoon; our team will be reporting from Cop for the duration, with a daily live blog and lots of news stories to keep you up to date on all the developments.

Nikhita Chulani

We’ve been hearing a lot of debates about what exactly loss and damage is.

Ulaiasi Tuikoro, a youth activist from Fiji, who has been demonstrating at Cop27, says “it’s everything about me”.

“I have lost a lot. I’ve lived through many cyclones. It’s hard to recover from that so for me loss and damage is everything I am.”

Tuikoro says that not everyone is paying their fair share for the injustices they have perpetuated and that loss and damage will help save “whatever we have left”.

“In the Pacific we’ve got this culture of not wanting to complain a lot, but we’re not complaining, we are demanding our place and survival.

“We have tears of resilience and our pleading to our world leaders to save what we can.”

In Fiji, the climate crisis means dozens of villages could soon be under water. Relocating so many communities is an epic undertaking. But now there is a plan.

Read my colleague Kate Lyon’s piece on how to move a country.

Rare good news – Norwegian oil field shuts down

Damian Carrington

It is hard to find good news on the climate crisis at Cop27 and in particular on keeping fossil fuels in the ground, as scientists have repeatedly said must happen. But most delegates here will be cheered by the news that Norway’s oil company has postponed development of the world’s most northerly oilfield exploitation.

The Wisting field would be a $10bn project, but has been put on ice for four years. The company blamed a “cost increase due to increased global inflation” and “uncertainty about the framework conditions for the project”. Campaigners claimed the move as a victory.

Equinor has been under pressure in Norway over the project and the field may now never be exploited, with some analysts expecting oil demand to peak soon.

Arild Hermstad, leader of Norway’s Green party, told the Guardian: “We are celebrating the good news today. But as long as the Norwegian government does not make a political announcement to stop all new exploration, our credibility as a climate leader at the ongoing climate talks in Egypt is nonexistent.”

Tessa Khan, director of Uplift, said:

“Even if Equinor puts the decision down to rising costs, this is a victory for the climate. Equinor spends a lot on PR telling people that it is transitioning away from oil and gas, but in reality it is planning to develop huge new oil and gas projects.”

UN secretary general, António Guterres, told Cop27 on Tuesday: “Using bogus ‘net zero’ pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. This toxic coverup could push our world over the climate cliff.”

Pelosi: many Republicans think climate crisis is a “hoax”

Oliver Milman

Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, has appeared at Cop27, telling an event it is “hard to speak” about the midterm elections in the US, which could still see Republicans take narrow control of the chamber.

Pelosi, wearing a US and Ukraine flag pin, said that Democrats and Republicans have had “as you would say a disagreement on this issue, they all say it’s a hoax and we’ve got to get past that. This is urgent, this is overdue”.

She added: “We have to save all the children, it’s a moral issue. We can’t have political disagreements over this or let the fossil fuel industry cramp our style. The need is great enough and the urgency is clear enough.”

Pelosi would not dwell on the midterms, which could oust her from her speaker role, but did lament that the US chartered two flights for lawmakers to head to the talks in Egypt, but found little interest due to the elections.

It’s likely Republican control of the House would stymie any further climate bills or climate funding for developing countries. Kathy Castor, chair of the House subcommittee on the climate crisis, spoke alongside Pelosi and said Republicans would “nix” the committee should they gain power.

Ruth Michaelson

The family of the jailed British-Egyptian political prisoner and hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah say that prison authorities informed them he has “undergone a medical intervention with the knowledge of a judicial authority”.

Abd el-Fattah’s mother, the activist Laila Soueif, was prevented from waiting outside Wadi al-Natrun prison where the democracy activist is believed to be held for a fourth day, as the Egyptian authorities refuse to provide further information or allow communication between the jailed democracy activist and his family.

His family said:

Wadi al-Natrun prison officials today refused to allow Laila Soueif to wait at the prison gates. They refused to take receipt of a letter she had written to the prison governor and one to Alaa. They informed her that Alaa had “undergone a medical intervention with the knowledge of a judicial authority”. We are demanding information on the substance of the “medical intervention” and demanding that with the utmost urgency he is moved to a hospital where lawyers and family can reach him. Figures from the respected al-Nadim Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence puts the number of prisoners who have died in Egypt’s prisons this year alone at 40 prisoners. The latest was Ala al-Salmi, 47, who died in Badr 3 prison at the end of October. Mr al-Salmi had been on hunger strike.

The statement from the prison authorities suggests Abd el-Fattah has either been forced fed, forced to accept intravenous fluids or another form of medical treatment he did not consent to, following six months of hunger strike and a water strike that he began on the day Cop27 commenced in Sharm el-Sheikh. His sister, Sanaa Seif, who is attending Cop27, told the Guardian earlier this week that “force-feeding is torture, and nothing should happen that is against Alaa’s will”.

The author Omar Robert Hamilton, Abd el-Fattah’s cousin, said: “This news is seriously worrying. I am not comforted at all and believe he is still at massive risk. The Egyptian authorities are totally opaque, cruel, incompetent, corrupt and so paralysed by fear that information doesn’t travel along chains of command properly – so anything could happen. After being on hunger strike for seven months Alaa’s body is in an incredibly precarious state and the wrong intervention could have terrible consequences. This is against his will, illegal and inhumane. We don’t even know if he is in a hospital or still inside the prison. The cruelty is unfathomable.”

His lawyer Khaled Ali said that he was suddenly granted access to visit him Wadi al Natrun prison for the first time.

Ali tweeted that he is currently en route to the prison to visit the activist after receiving permission to do so from Egypt’s public prosecutor. All of Ali’s previous requests have been denied or ignored, while Egyptian officials have stonewalled ongoing efforts by British consular officials to get access to the campaigner, after repeatedly failing to recognise his dual nationality.

Gloria Ocampo, Berta Caceres, Marielle Franco, Liliana Peña Chocué, Macarena Valdés, Amaya Morales – just a few of the thousands of murdered environmental and human rights defenders whose names were read at the biggest and most emotive protest at Cop27 so far.

A couple of hundred people gathered wearing white clothes in solidarity with the murdered and jailed defenders around the world who put their bodies on the line to save the planet, but whose voices are missing from Cop27 and the wider fight for climate and social justice. Each person’s name was followed by an emotive shout of “not yet defeated”.

The sobering name call was followed by half a minute of silence, after which speakers from the US, Malaysia, Philippines, South Africa and occupied first nation land in what’s known as Canada, called out the UNFCCC and country states for pushing market-driven solutions while denying frontline communities a seat at the table.

“Stop lying to the people. Move away from carbon credits and other false solutions,” said Siawatu-Salama Ra from Michigan. “It is not a crime to want affordable safe water or clean air to breathe. Free all prisoners, free them all, free him, free him,” she said, apparently referring to the Egyptian-British jailed hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah whose fate is unknown.

Some of the biggest cheers came during the impassioned speech from 29-year-old Zukiswa White from South Africa, who connected dots between the wealth of the rich global north and the degradation and poverty of the global south. “We are still paying for their development, as if their countries were not built off of our backs. We don’t need to know how to take care and nurture our land from those who have destroyed and degraded our land, culture and heritage. That is why we are here at Cop27. If we keep moving in the logic of white supremacy and racist development projects, our kids will be here at Cop100.”

White read out a quote from Fikile Ntshangase, a South African activist who fought against a coal mine: “I refused to sign, I cannot sell out my people. If need be, I will die for my people.” Fikile Ntshangase was murdered in 2020.

Israel, Lebanon and Iraq team up to tackle global heating

Damian Carrington

In a rare example of climate change concerns taking priority over political hostility, Israel, Lebanon and Iraq have agreed along with other nations to work together to tackle global heating, according to the New Arab website and other reports.

Israel is still officially at war with Lebanon and bans its citizens from having any contact with Israelis, while Israel and Iraq have no diplomatic relations due to a history of hostilities.

“The countries of the region share the warming and drying climate and just as they share the problems they can and must share the solutions. No country can stand alone in the face of the climate crisis,” said Tamar Zandberg, Israel’s outgoing environmental protection minister.

However, the office of Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati, played down any wider significance of the meeting at Cop27, saying it was attended by a large number of Arab and international officials: “There was no contact whatsoever with any Israeli official.”

The Haaretz newspaper said that, according to sources, this is the first high-level regional meeting on climate change that Israel is taking part in.

Israel and Jordan also signed a memorandum of understanding at Cop27 to move ahead with their water-for-energy deal, first announced a year ago. In the proposal, Jordan will build 600 megawatts of solar power capacity to export electricity to Israel in exchange for 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water.