The COP climate negotiations have been an "enormous failure" over the last three decades.
That is according to environmental journalist John Gibbons, who highlights that carbon emissions have more than doubled in that time.
Representatives from all over the world will come together in Egypt today to discuss how they each can tackle the climate crisis individually and as a global community.
Mr Gibbons said that the climate crisis is not unique to one region and we can't carry on the way we have been.
"I think this summer in particular, this extreme summer from China through Europe through the US, of really unprecedented weather, has given people a foretaste of what the 21st century has in store."
"It isn't just that 2022 will be a typical year in the future, the weather is going to get more and more extreme."
Extreme weather
COP27 is happening against a backdrop of extreme weather events and an ongoing energy crisis.
In Europe, temperatures climbed to their highest levels on record for this late in the year.
Some parts of the continent even experienced temperatures as much as 20 degrees above normal.
It follows a particularly warm summer for Ireland.
According to Mr Gibbons, enough hasn't been done to stop such a feat.
"In the 30 years that we've had the global intergovernmental climate negotiations through the COP process, in that time, worldwide climate emissions have more than doubled", he said.
"So we can say for certain that this process to date has been an enormous failure."
Young activists
An 18-year-old Irish environmental activist is in Eypt this weekend for the climate conference.
Jessica Dunne from Dublin has said that Ireland has an important role to play in the negotiations.
She believes COP27 could be our best hope to date for progress on emissions.
Speaking to Newstalk, she said: "My frustration comes from the fact that COP could be such an important thing."
"The fact that the nations are coming together to discuss the climate is really productive in itself."
"But if we don't actually utilise the space and if we don't actually listen to the science and the people who are being affected by climate change today, then there's really no point in it."
Main image shows someone holding a thermometer. towfiqu Barbhuiya/Alamy
