Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - Climate activists on Wednesday lashed out at a shift many governments made to utilize environmentally unfriendly fossil fuels in a bid to weather an acute energy crisis.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has, among other things, sent energy prices soaring, prompting several nations to reconsider their energy policies and reactivate coal-fired power plants.

The fossil fuels, mainly coal, crude oil, and natural gas, produce large amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

Environment campaigners have sounded the alarm over the shift.

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"We want progress and end fuel fossils," activists chanted Wednesday at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh resort where a major UN climate conference, known as COP27, is underway.

"We're calling on all governments to end this dash for fossil fuels," said Susanne Wong of Oil Change International, a US-based non-profit group advocating a transition to clean energy.

"The situation is incredibly serious," she told dpa. "Some of these governments are working actively to expand the use of gas. This will worsen the situation."

Representatives from around 200 countries are grappling at the COP27 conference with how global warming can still be contained and how climate damage can be financed. The goal is to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But Wong is not optimistic about the outcome of the two-week event, which opened in the Red Sea resort Sunday. "They talk about climate action and justice, and yet they make announcements about new fossil fuel projects," she said.

Some activists, meanwhile, raised placards reading: "Stop financing fossil gas & false solutions."

Others chanted: "We want climate justice now. We’re asking for survival."

Addressing a climate summit of world leaders Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that the world is on a "highway to climate hell."