European official: Egypt plays leading role in climate change issue

European official: Egypt plays leading role in climate change issue Tue, Oct. 5, 2021
AIRO - 5 October 2021: Vice-President of the European Commission for Climate Change Frans Timmermans asserted on Monday that Egypt plays a leading role in climate change issue.

In statements to MENA on the sidelines of his current visit to Cairo, Timmermans hailed Egypt's remarkable attention to the climate change issue, being a real pioneer on the road to development and sustainability.

As for Egypt's announcement about its readiness for hosting COP27 in 2022, the European official noted the coming summit will be held in Africa, adding that participants in the consultative meetings; the Pre-COP, held in Milan, talked about Egypt's suggestion to host the coming summit, a matter which he described as good.

US Climate Envoy John Kerry revealed that Egypt has been already chosen as the nominee to host the next session of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in 2022.

This comes as a country is chosen each year to represent a different region of the world and host the COP meeting as the president of the conference.

At a virtual meeting of the Heads of State and Government on Climate Change on slides of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76) earlier this month, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi called for the necessity to seriously deal with any unilateral measures that contribute to exacerbating the consequences of climate change.

“This sets within the framework of adaptation to climate change, which is a top priority for developing countries, especially in the African continent,” he said.

He added that Africa “suffers from severe consequences of climate change, especially the consequences that relate to water scarcity, drought, land desertification and the threat to food security.”

Sisi also affirmed that Egypt is looking forward to hosting the 2022 climate conference (COP 27), on behalf of the African continent, saying “Egypt will work to make a significant turning point in climate in partnership with all parties, for the benefit of the African continent and the world.”

The President also called upon the developed countries to shoulder their responsibilities for reducing CO2 emissions in implementation of their international commitments, within the framework of the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC, especially following the recent large-scale forest fires in various regions around the globe.

“Climate change has become a terrifying reality that calls for an immediate action to confront it,” he said.