A virtual meeting between Egypt’s Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad and Mary Robinson, Former head of the UNHCR, and Chair of Elders —an independent group of global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights—discussed Africa priorities at COP 27. COP 27 will be held at Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt in November 2022.
Dr Fouad assured that all members of the Ministry of Environment in Egypt were working to make COP27 a success, that there was an initiative for women, especially that they are the most vulnerable to the global climate change. She stressed that doubling the adaptation finance and realising real advantages on loss and damage would be highlighted by women leaders during the COP27 on Gender Day, adding that the keynote speech on that day would be delivered by the head of Egypt’s National Council for Women.
Adaptation finance, Dr Fouad explained, was equally important to the accessibility to this finance. She insisted that if there was no accessibility to the adaptation finance, there would be a fake advantage.
Dr Fouad stressed that many countries in the world are suffering from climate changes as in higher temperatures, floods, and draught. For this, she said, matters should be taken seriously in order to make a progress on those issues. She said adaptation was not detached from Nature and biodiversity, especially that the CBD COP 15 of biodiversity will take place in December 2022, following COP27 in November 2022.
For her part, Mary Robinson insisted that the need now is to make a real progress on implementation and that doubling the adaptation finance according to Glasgow decision is becoming a must. According to Robinson, there is a big need to start getting serious instead of dialogues. She assured that it was important to work on doubling this finance and to be sure of achieving progress by 2025. Ms Robinson focused as well on that realising real advantages on loss and damage beyond the adaptation finance is very important. In this context, she invited Dr Fouad to attend a meeting that will take place in New York on 19 September, organised by women leaders Network, to discuss these two points in particular.
Both leaders agreed that to the need for cooperation between Africa and Europe Women Network in order to move forward on these issues by 2023.
Along the same line of preparing for COP27, and within the string of meetings Dr Fouad holds with international and local partners, she has recently talked to Denmark’s Minister of Climate, Energy and Public Utilities Dan Jorgenson. They discussed how COP27 can be a success, especially in view of the climate changes faced by many countries in the world.
Dr Fouad explained that the main target of COP27 was implementation, and that Egypt has announced its priorities, emphasising climate finance and climate adaptation. She stressed that there were four main important topics, which Egypt would like to share ideas with all countries. These topics, she said, were included into the Presidency Action Agenda; they are: Food security and agriculture; water; nature and biodiversity (within the framework of Canada’s hosting of the COP15 Convention on Biodiversity, in December 2022); and finally, waste and energy, as well as how the private sector can be involved in its projects, especially that it concerns all African countries.
Dr Fouad assured that adaptation finance would be discussed on Finance Day during the COP27, as well as the role of civil society, which would be discussed on the thematic days. She stressed that it was important for Egypt to discuss energy transition, decarbonisation efforts and finance, especially for heavy industries such as cement.
As the Global Goal on Adaptation sets out to enhance adaptive capacity and strengthen resilience, with a view to reducing vulnerability and contributing to sustainable development, Dr Fouad affirmed that renewable resources of energy were affordable in comparison with the situation 7-8 years ago. She stressed that this target required all parties to engage in and communicate their efforts to plan and implement mitigation measures.
Mr Jorgenson, agreed that the latest science shows that climate change is “moving much faster than we are”, and is pushing ecosystems and communities to their limit. That is the reason why all these topics are important, he said, especially that previous COPs mainly focused on mitigation: reducing emissions to limit climate damage. Mr Jorgenson stressed that it was crucial to reduce use of fossil fuels, to facilitate energy transition to renewable resources, and to give people access to these resources.
Watani International
28 August 2022