Cop28 live: world leaders to speak at third day of climate summit

Hosts the UAE will hope that more countries use their speeches to pledge money to the newly approved loss and damage fund

Good morning! This is Alan Evans, bringing you coverage from the third day of the UN’s Cop28 climate summit.

The Guardian will be liveblogging the negotiations throughout. You can email me on alan.evans@theguardian.com or on X/Twitter at @itsalanevans, and my colleague Ajit Niranjan (ajit.niranjan@theguardian.com) will take over later on.

World leaders, particularly those from developing countries at the forefront of the climate crises, begged large economies and emitters to take urgent action both to reduce emissions and fund loss and damage

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak declared to the conference that he had watered down climate policy in the UK, drawing anger from politicians and climate experts who said he had “misread the room”

UK opposition leader Keir Starmer accused Sunak of “shrinking and retreating” from showcasing leadership on the global stage at Cop28 and over the climate crisis

A new UN report found that droughts are a planetary emergency causing widespread famine, and that they are a silent, often ignored, killer

Brazil’s president, Lula, outlined that it is not possible to tackle the climate crisis without also tackling inequality. He spoke of climate suffering in the Amazon, which is experiencing one of the “most tragic droughts in its history” while cyclones in the south of Brazil have left a trail “of destruction and death”.

The UK’s King Charles III opened the conference, and warned in his speech that “unless we rapidly repair and restore nature’s economy, based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled.”