The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 concluded on November 20 with a dramatic agreement for developed nations to establish and contribute to a “loss and damage” fund for vulnerable nations facing climate disasters and crises.
The COP27 conference, held at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, also featured a reaffirming of earlier commitments to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level; a strengthening of actions related to cutting greenhouse gas emissions; and boosting financial support for developing countries.
COP27 brought together more than 45,000 participants to share ideas, solutions, and build partnerships and coalitions. The actions agreed to, and the decisions taken at COP27 reemphasize the critical importance of empowering all stakeholders to engage in climate action.
Color satellite image of the indigenous territory Igarape Lage, Rondonia, Brazil, covering an area of 688,000 square kilometers. Image collected on September 25, 2020 by Sentinel-2 satellites. Photo: Planet Observer/UIG 
Fallow crop field on farm near Maricopa, route 166, Kern County, California, USA. Photo: Citizen of the Planet/UIG 
Activists gather near Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles, one of the largest contiguous urban oil fields in the country, to urge the Governor of California to take action to phase out fossil fuels, beginning with those within 2500 feet of homes and other sensitive sites, Inglewood Oil Field, Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. Photo: Citizen of the Planet/UIG 
Melting Arctic sea ice. North polar ice cap, Arctic ocean. Photo: Sergio Pitamitz / VWPics/UIG 
A wildfire breaks out on the edge of the Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield. The oil field is the third largest oil field in California and is the densest operational oil development in the state, with over 9,000 oil wells in an area just under 11 acres, Bakersfield, Kern County, California, USA. Photo: Citizen of the Planet/UIG 
Wind-powered electricity generators near Palm Springs, California. Behind are the San Jacinto Mountains. Photo: Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/UIG 
Lack Of Rainfall Causing a Drought. Photo: Mark Stevenson/UIG 
Gaza City. 17th January 2022. A Palestinian family woke up in the morning to the torrential rain that stormed their home while they were sleeping following torrential rains that hit the Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza strip. Gaza. Photo: Mohammed Al-Zanoun/Majority World/UIG 
Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan was a powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Eastern India, specifically in West Bengal and Odisha. The cyclone killed at least 84 people across India and Bangladesh. Kolkata, India. Photo: Prasanta Biswas/Majority World/UIG 
Workers are taking piles of bricks on their heads in a brick field in Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Bangladesh, with its 160 million inhabitants, is a country in constant demand for bricks as the primary material for construction of buildings in the era of urbanization. There are approximately 5000 privately operated brick kilns within Bangladesh, including 1000 around the capital, Dhaka. Brick kilns, indirectly responsible for climate change, emit toxic fumes containing large amounts of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and oxides of Sulphur which are extremely harmful to the eyes, lungs and throat and causes environmental degradation. Photo: Joy Saha/Majority World/UIG 
Smoking domestic rooftop chimneys from houses emitting vapour from gas boilers for central heating at sunrise on freezing cold winter morning. Photo: Philippe Clément/Arterra/UIG 
San Benedetto Po, Mantua, Bagnolo San Vito Nautical Club. One of the largest and best equipped tourist landings of the whole river stopped due to very little water in the basin. Photo: Nicola Marfisi/AGF/UIG 
The mighty glacier Dyngjujoekull from Kverkfjoell. The north eastern interior highlands of Iceland in the Vatnajoekull National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. Europe, Northern Europe, Iceland. Photo: Martin Zwick/REDA&COCO/UIG 
Low water levels at Lake Shasta, California, USA. Photo: Marli Miller/UIG 
09/18/2022 Senigallia (AN), the damage caused by the flooding of the Misa river. Photo: Alessandro Serrano’/AGF/UIG 
Transporting canisters of drinking water for distribution to roadside food stalls on World Water Day which is observed on 22nd March to raise awareness of the water crisis facing much of the world’s population. Agartala, Tripura, India. Photo: Majority World/UIG 
Vadnais Heights, Minnesota. Vadnais Lake drying up and shrinking to half its size after a summer without hardly any rain in 20222. Photo: Michael Siluk/UIG 
Solar panels of photovoltaic power station / solar park for the supply of electricity at Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Photo: Sven-Erik Arndt/Arterra/UIG
2022 reminded all of us many times of the impacts of climate change and the potential future implications for the planet and humankind if the agreed action plans from COP27 and earlier conferences are not executed. Examples of climate disasters during 2022 included Hurricane Ian’s destructions across Florida, severe drought conditions across the Southwestern United States and most of Europe; severe wildfires and catastrophic flooding in Algeria, South Africa and other African nations; and monsoon-related flooding across Pakistan and Asia. UIG’s contributing partners continued providing examples of the global climate crisis throughout 2022, including the images in the attached gallery.
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This article continues a series of posts focused on UIG’s Mission 2022: Climate Change. Help us build a comprehensive climate change collection by contributing content to UIG. Contact us at info@universalimagesgroup.com