In interviews, more than a dozen U.S. and European finance leaders were pessimistic the climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt starting Nov. 6 can make clear progress.
"The age-old dilemma of climate finance, facilitated between the developed and the developing world, will of course be critical. We, I don't think, are too optimistic that many resolutions will be met in that regard."published in October underlined the urgency of the climate problem and that emissions must drop 43% by the end of the decade to prevent the worst impacts of a hotter planet.
"Avoiding a rollback of existing pledges and commitments... could probably be considered a success," Benedict Buckley, research analyst at ClearBridge Investments, said. "The hardest work is still to come. The reality is that not enough has been done in the last 12 months – some would argue we have moved backwards," said Hortense Bioy, Global Director of Sustainability Research at Morningstar.
The biggest disruption since last year's Glasgow climate talks has been the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a major oil and gas exporter.