COP27 portal goes online

Ahmed Morsy , Wednesday 10 Aug 2022

Al-Ahram Weekly reviews the recently launched website of COP27.

COP27 portal goes online
COP27 portal goes online

 

With less than 90 days remaining before the start of COP27, Egypt recently announced the schedule of the event on its official COP27 website.

The website (www.cop27.eg) comprises five sections: Egyptian Presidency, Vision and Mission, Conference, Trip Planning and News.

The Egyptian Presidency section includes an introduction to climate change and COP27, a welcome message from President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, and the COP27 legacy showcasing Africa’s contributions to the global movement to tackle climate change.

The Vision and Mission section comprises the Egyptian goals to accelerate global climate action through the mitigation of negative repercussions and the reduction of emissions, scaling-up adaptation efforts and enhancing flows of appropriate finance.

The conference section includes information about host city Sharm El-Sheikh, the venue of the conference, and its adjacent Green Zone.

The COP27 events will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre (SHICC), one of the largest and most innovative conference centres in the Middle East and Africa. The complex has a variety of flexible conference and exhibition halls that will form the Blue Zone for COP27.

The Green Zone will be opposite to the conference centre and will serve as an active space for youth groups, civil society, academia, artists, and businesses from across Egypt, Africa, and the rest of the world. It will host events, exhibitions, cultural performances, workshops, and talks.

The Trip Planning section involves information on how to apply for an Egyptian visa, accommodation, flights, and means of transportation.

The COP27 event is from 7-17 November. It comprises the meetings of COP27, the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 17), and the fourth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 4).

The first two days of the event, on 7 and 8 November, will see the holding of the World Leaders Summit (WLS) while 9 November will witness sessions related to climate finance.

“Finance is the cornerstone for implementing climate actions and scaling up ambition and hence it has been at the heart of the UNFCCC process and the Paris Agreement negotiations,” the website said.

 “The Glasgow outcomes also reiterated the centrality of finance as a catalyst for progress in all aspects of the global climate agenda and many parties demonstrated the political will to deliver on finance commitments.”

A session will be dubbed Adaptation and Agriculture Day to discuss the adaptation to the impact of climate change. Agriculture and food systems as adaptation and resilience are of crucial importance to all parties and in particular developing countries.

14 November will be Water Day, according to the agenda.

Climate change is disrupting weather patterns, leading to extreme weather events, unpredictable water availability, exacerbating water scarcity and contaminating water supplies, according to UNICEF.

Around 74 per cent of natural disasters between 2001 and 2018 were water-related, including droughts and floods. The frequency and intensity of such events are only expected to increase with climate change, UNICEF says.

It adds that such impact can drastically affect the quantity and quality of water that children need to survive. One billion children are at “extremely high risk” of the impact of the climate crisis.

Another session will touch on biodiversity. That day will deal with nature and ecosystem-based solutions, opening discussions on the impact of climate change on biodiversity and the means to mobilise global action towards challenges to halt biodiversity loss and to reduce the impact of climate change and pollution.

According to the UN, unprecedented changes in climate and biodiversity, driven by human activities, have combined to increasingly threaten nature, human lives, livelihoods and the well-being of the world. Biodiversity loss and climate change are both driven by human economic activities and mutually reinforce each other.

The incoming Egyptian COP27 presidency has identified a range of topics focused on enhancing implementation and raising ambitions on a broad range of issues related to climate change, according to the official website. Egypt has further designated several thematic days for focused discussions, including through side events, panel discussions, round tables and other interactive formats to deliberate on and share with the wider audience, the website noted.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced last week the launch of the official COP27 Facebook page (www.facebook.com/COP27Egypt). The official Twitter account of the COP27 (www. twitter.com/Cop27P) was created in March.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 August, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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