Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the president-designate of the upcoming UN climate change conference, has warned of the impact of challenges posed by the global food and energy crises on climate change.
In remarks published by Bloomberg news agency on Sunday, Shoukry said his country will prevent all what could impact the level of ambition and might lead to distractions of the climate change priority.
Egypt will host the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in November.
As the first African country to host a COP meeting in six years, Shoukry affirmed that Cairo also wants to focus on how developing nations can get funding to adapt to the changing climate and to finance the green energy transition.
“The conference is going to be held in a difficult geo-political situation, with the world facing energy and food challenges,” he said in written answers to questions.
The FM stressed that his country wants to ensure there’s no backtracking on past commitments to slow the pace of climate change — even as global leaders grapple with food shortages, an energy crisis and high inflation.
The main focus of COP27 is to “raise ambition” and confirm “no backsliding or backtracking on commitments and pledges” made in past summits, he said.
The plummeting cost of renewable power should lead to large investments into cleaner forms of energy, Shoukry said.
But the current geopolitical situation suggests the switch to renewable power will take longer than the global community anticipated at the COP meeting in Glasgow last year, he explained.
He underscored the importance of listening carefully to African concerns and to ensure the African priorities, such as adaptation and resilience.
He added that negotiations on finance should take into consideration “the needs of communities across Africa, who are suffering more than any other continent from the impacts of climate change.”
Shoukry also affirmed that the job of the COP presidency is to align and converge the views and to overcome this divide, noting that achieving a breakthrough in finance remains of high importance for many of the developing and African countries.
Egypt was the first in the Middle East and North Africa to issue a sovereign green bond worth $750 million in 2020, tapping investors keen to fund clean transport, water supply for cities and the management of wastewater.
It submitted in June a new and updated climate targets to the UN as part of its attempt to contribute to slowing the pace of climate change and aims to double the share of renewables in the power mix to 42% by 2035.
“While we recognize that governments play a central role for the success of international efforts to deal with the climate crisis, the current challenge requires the concerted efforts of all stakeholders,” Shoukry said when asked about whether protests will be allowed at Sharm el-Sheikh.
“All stakeholders have to have a role at the COP, and the appropriate space to express their views at both the formal and the informal tracks.”
