Alden Meyer has attended 26 of 27 United Nations climate change conferences, crisscrossing the globe each year to pressure diplomats to strike deals that will slow the Earth’s catastrophic warming. But he has never seen a summit this chaotic and behind schedule. 

Meyer, a senior associate at the independent climate think tank E3G, laid blame squarely on the Egyptian hosts of this year’s conference, known as COP27, for failing to anticipate and address some of the thorniest issues facing negotiators, such as the contentious debate over whether wealthy nations should compensate poor countries for the costs of coping with disasters fueled by climate change. 

“They got off to a slower start, and all the big negotiating issues are still on the table,” Meyer said in an interview from the bustling conference venue in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. “So they are a little behind the curve and playing catch-up to try to get an acceptable outcome.” 

 Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Below we have an exclusive look at new spending by environmental groups in the Georgia Senate runoff race. But first:   Egypt faces criticism for presiding over a climate summit characterized by delays and shouting matches over human rights    Alden Meyer has attended 26 of 27 United Nations climate change conferences, crisscrossing the globe each year to pressure diplomats to strike deals that will slow the Earth’s catastrophic warming. But he has never seen a summit this chaotic and behind schedule.   Meyer, a senior associate at the independent climate think tank E3G, laid blame squarely on the Egyptian hosts of this year’s conference, known as COP27, for failing to anticipate and address some of the thorniest issues facing negotiators, such as the contentious debate over whether wealthy nations should compensate poor countries for the costs of coping with disasters fueled by climate change.  “They got off to a slower start, and all the big negotiating issues are still on the table,” Meyer said in an interview from the bustling conference venue in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. “So they are a little behind the curve and playing catch-up to try to get an acceptable outcome.”   Unlike past hosts, Egypt has taken a haphazard approach to organizing the high-stakes negotiations, according to interviews with half a dozen diplomats, activists and other longtime observers of the talks, Maxine and our colleague Siobhán O'Grady report this morning. The approach threatens to undermine global progress on climate action at a critical time — top scientists say the world has only nine years to stave off the dire consequences of unchecked global warming, from vanishing coral reefs to intensifying extreme weather events.