Addressing the High-Level Session of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, El-Sisi said Egypt will be hosting COP27 amid successive challenges, primarily the current global energy crisis and the food crisis many developing countries are suffering from.

The challenges include the accumulation of debt, poor flow of funds, the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the complicated political scene caused by the war in Ukraine, he added.

El-Sisi commended Germany's leading role in addressing climate change and dealing with its impact, saying that Berlin's efforts in this respect demonstrated its political commitment at the highest level to support international climate action.

The Egyptian president stressed that the Petersberg dialogue has become an important forum to mobilise international consensus on the political level on climate action.

The 13th Petersburg Climate Dialogue is co-chaired by Egypt and Germany.

El-Sisi reiterated that climate change has become an existential threat to many countries to the extent that it is no longer possible to postpone the implementation of climate-related pledges and commitments.

The heatwave experienced by the European continent these days is a good evidence of the accuracy of these projections, he noted, calling for stepping up efforts to implement the Paris Agreement and turn the Nationally Determined Contributions into a reality within the framework of the international principles governing international climate action. 

Egypt, El-Sisi asserted, seeks to make COP27 a turning point to maintain international momentum and affirm the commitment of all governmental and non-governmental parties to turn their promises and pledges to actions on the ground.

This includes ensuring that the process of transitioning to a low-emission economy will make it capable to deal with and adapt to the negative effects of climate change, he explained.

Egypt is set to host COP27 in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Shiekh in November.

The Egyptian efforts will also focus on contributing to enhancing the size, quality, and mechanisms of climate financing that is available to developing countries, he added, stressing this is the cornerstone to empowering them to play their role within this global effort.

To achieve this vision Egypt counts on the support of all parties and their contributions to a climate of trust to achieve the aspired results, he noted.

El-Sisi lauded the statements on climate change, the environment, and development issued during the latest summit of the G7 of the world's leading industrial nations held in Germany last month.

He said these statements included positive political positions and clear visions on supporting a fair energy transition process in a number of developing countries, while assuring the importance of expanding the scale of this support to include other developing countries, which also exert unyielding efforts to this end.

The president underlined the impacts of climate change on Africa which he said is suffering from desertification, water scarcity, high sea levels, floods, and torrential rains, among other extreme weather conditions, changing at a faster pace and leaving a stronger impact.

He stressed that the recent food and energy crises have exacerbated the challenges that African countries face, referring to their limited capacities and financing available to overcome these difficulties.

The president urged supporting African countries and empower them to benefit from their natural resources and to achieve economic development in accordance with efforts to combat climate change and protect the environment.

El-Sisi called for adopting a comprehensive approach that puts into consideration the economic and developmental conditions of each country, particularly because the African countries have already made great strides in this direction, given the vast areas of forests they have and their ability to generate solar and wind energy.

Egypt has taken effective steps to shift to a sustainable development model in line with its efforts to preserve the environment and confront climate change, El-Sisi noted.

The country is also taking serious steps to increase the use of renewable energy and is preparing a comprehensive strategy for hydrogen, he noted.

It also seeks to implement ambitious plans for electrical interconnection with regional countries in a way that turns Egypt to a renewable energy hub in the region, in addition to raising energy efficiency and reducing carbon and methane emissions in the oil and gas sectors, the president noted.

Furthermore, Egypt is implementing wide-ranging plans to rely more on clean transportation by expanding metro and train networks and localising the electric car industry.

In parallel, Egypt has boosted efforts to adapt to the negative effects of climate change, including projects to rationalise water use, line canals, effect the integrated management of coastal areas, and install early warning mechanisms.

Egypt has recently submitted its updated Nationally Determined Contribution document, in accordance with the Paris Agreement, including ambitious and specific quantitative goals in a number of key sectors.

The president called on all countries to update their Nationally Determined Contributions and raise the ambition of the commitments before and during the Sharm El-Sheikh conference.

He assured that Egypt will spare no effort to render COP27 successful by providing conducive and inclusive conditions for all parties, including states, international organisations, civil society and others to maintaining the 1.5°C target within reach and putting the world on the right path towards implementing the Paris goals and the resolutions of successive climate summits.

The country, he added, will seek to make real progress on the governmental negotiating track and to reach broad consensus on the topics being negotiated.

Egypt will also seek to make progress on informal tracks and will launch initiatives and sponsor a large number of constructive dialogues and discussions between various governmental and non-governmental parties during COP27.