A thirsty COP27 climate summit plagued by glitches

A thirsty COP27 climate summit plagued by glitches

Wheelchair struggles, scarce drinking water, $15 sandwiches and hotel price-gouging at the COP27 climate summit have sparked anger and forced host country Egypt into damage-control mode, participants at the two-week meet said.

Organising a UN climate conference -- which brings together up to 35,000 people from 195 countries each year -- is a world-class logistical challenge, and veterans of the nearly 30-year process are used to minor inconvenience.

But this year's sprawling event in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh has been plagued with problems, participants say, the most basic perhaps being accessibility.

Pratima Gurung, who works with a disability advocacy group, said she and the Disability Rights Fund's Krishna Gahatraj, who uses a wheelchair, have been left in the middle of the road "multiple times" while waiting for shuttle buses.

Organisers "haven't clearly instructed the drivers" on how to accommodate people with disabilities, said Gurung, who runs the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association in Nepal.

Though ramps abound, attendees with physical impairments say they are not standard, and that the UN climate summit has been especially difficult for them to navigate.

"As a disabled person, COP is inherently inaccessible for me," said SustainedAbility's Jason Boberg, who has attended the past five summits organised