Egypt will spare no effort in leading global climate change action, says foreign minister 

RIYADH: Urgent international action to confront climate change is needed, and Egypt will spare no effort in leading the charge, the country’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said at the UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh.

He said that COP27 proves to the world Egypt’s commitment to confronting climate change and its capability as a global host, and that the participation numbers reflect the true international will to solve the climate change crisis. 

“The pattern that humanity has followed since the beginning of the industrial revolution until today is no longer sustainable,” Shoukry said. 

“We are facing huge gaps in global warming, and the global climate situation requires fundamental change. We still face gaps in providing the financing needed to enable developing countries to face climate change,” he added.

Delegates at the UN’s COP27 climate summit agreed to discuss whether rich nations should compensate poor countries most vulnerable to climate change for their suffering.

“This creates for the first time an institutionally stable space on the formal agenda of COP and the Paris Agreement to discuss the pressing issue of funding arrangements needed to deal with existing gaps, responding to loss and damage,” Shoukry who took charge as the new COP27 president told the opening plenary.

The item was adopted to the agenda in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, as world leaders arrived for the negotiations scheduled to run through Nov. 18.

Much of the tension at COP27 is expected to relate to loss and damage — funds provided by wealthy nations to vulnerable lower-income countries that bear little responsibility for climate-warming emissions.

At COP26 last year in Glasgow, high-income nations blocked a proposal for a loss and damage financing body, instead supporting a new three-year dialogue for funding discussions.

The loss and damage discussions now on the agenda at COP27 will not involve liability or binding compensation, but they are intended to lead to a conclusive decision “no later than 2024,” Shoukry said.

“The inclusion of this agenda reflects a sense of solidarity for the victims of climate disasters,” he added.

(With inputs from Reuters)