Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Foreign Minister and President-designate of COP27 Sameh Shoukry, Environment Minister Yassmine Fouad with Executive Secretary of UNFCCC Patricia Espinosa during her meeting on Saturday 12 March, 2022. Photo courtesy of Egyptian Presidential spokesman Facebook page.
Espinosa's statement came during her meeting in Cairo on Saturday with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Foreign Minister and President-designate of COP27 Sameh Shoukry, and Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad.
Egypt looks forward to enhancing cooperation with the UN regarding preparations for COP27, El-Sisi told Espinosa during the meeting, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.
This comes as part of Egypt’s endeavours to build on the outcomes of COP26 held in November in Glasgow with the aim of reaching internationally applicable solutions and commitments to face climate challenges and securing the required international funding.
Espinosa hailed Egypt’s efforts to combat climate change, given that Egypt is among the first developing countries to adopt decisive policies regarding climate change, the presidential statement read.
She also praised Egypt’s efforts to tackle environment-related issues and support green transformation through building green cities, switching to clean transportation, issuing green bonds, and adopting the National Climate Change Strategy 2050.
Egypt’s strategy was launched in November on the sidelines of COP26 to achieve five objectives, including fostering climate change action governance, increasing sustainable economic growth, strengthening adaptation and resilience, and enhancing scientific research.
Egypt has repeatedly affirmed that it will work through COP27 to enhance international action against climate change at all levels to achieve the goals of the Paris agreement and will highlight the need for securing funding to help developing nations with mitigation and adaptation efforts.
Egypt has vowed to speak for the aspirations of Africa regarding facing climate change, affirming that the African continent, which is not responsible for the climate crisis, suffers from the most negative consequences of the phenomenon at the economic, social, security, and political fronts.
Over the past months, Egypt has also coordinated preparations for COP27 with international partners and climate officials, including US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry during his recent visit to Cairo and COP26 President Alok Sharma.
El-Sisi took part in COP26, where he called on developed countries to fulfil their pledge to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries to address the effects of climate change.
In a separate meeting on Saturday, Shoukry and Fouad discussed with Espinosa climate change adaptation efforts and the need to work on reducing the negative impact of climate change and securing the necessary funding.
The meeting saw discussions about the need for countries to continue enhancing their nationally-determined contributions to reduce emissions. They affirmed the need to encourage all parties, including civil society organisations, to actively engage in climate action.
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