Egypt's Environment minister heads for Glasgow to attend ministerial conf. of COP26

In his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi called for an urgent climate action to achieve  the goal of limiting global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, voicing Egypt’s keenness to host the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in 2022.

 

Here is the full text of President Sisi’s speech 

 

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful,

 

Your Excellencies,

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

It is a pleasure to be here amongst you today to discuss the issue of climate that is affecting us all.

 

The latest report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that enhancing climate action to achieve the threshold of 1.5 degrees has become inevitable and must not be delayed.

 

Therefore, I will focus today on the following points:

 

First: Egypt has initiated serious steps to apply a sustainable development model, at the heart of which lies climate change and adaptation to climate change. This model aims for government-funded green projects to reach 50% by 2025 and 100% by 2030. For example, sources of renewable energy represent today around 20% of the energy mix in Egypt. We work on bringing it to 42% by 2035, coinciding with the rationalization of energy subsidies. 

 

Egypt is also working toward the transition to clean transportation by expanding the metro, rail and electric vehicle networks, preparing the necessary infrastructure for that, and establishing smart and sustainable cities. This is in addition to the implementation of projects to rationalize water consumption, canal lining and the integrated management of coastal areas.

 

To fund those projects, Egypt has recently issued the first Green bonds at a value of 750 million US dollars. To place these efforts within their institutional framework, Egypt has completed the preparation of a national strategy for climate change 2050, which will open the way for Egypt to update its Nationally Determined Contributions so that the policies, objectives and measures encompassed in these contributions become integral to the state’s developmental efforts and its endeavors to recover from the repercussions of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, not a burden on it.

 

Second: Egypt understands its duties and is also aware of the magnitude of challenges that all developing countries are facing. Therefore, I would like to emphasize that developing countries’ implementation of their commitments to address climate change is conditioned by the amount of support they receive. This especially includes funding that is considered a keystone and the main determinant of our countries’ ability to raise their climate ambitions within the balanced framework that the Paris Agreement represents, which we should maintain in order to ensure boosting efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to the negative repercussions of climate change on equal footing.

 

We are concerned about the gap between the available funding and the actual needs of developing countries as well as the obstacles that our countries face to have access to it. Therefore, the developed countries must fulfill their pledges to provide 100 billion US dollars annually to fund climate in the developing countries. We confirm our support to the UN Secretary-General’s call for the funding allocated to adaptation not to be half of the available funding and the importance of commencing deliberations concerning the new post-2025 financing goal. 

 

Third: Although it is not responsible for the climate change crisis, the African continent faces the most negative repercussions and the subsequent economic, social, security and political consequences. Nevertheless, the continent is considered a model for serious climate action, as much as its capabilities and the support that it receives allow. Therefore, Egypt calls for the need to provide the African continent with special treatment, especially within the framework of implementing the Paris Agreement, given its special conditions and the challenges it faces.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am confident that our summit’s deliberations and outcomes will convey our political commitment to face climate change and adapt to its negative impacts. I am certain that this will reach our delegations that are ready to begin negotiating the proposed issues on the summit’s agenda and to be motivated to come up with positive results.  

 

I would also like to welcome the Glasgow committee and the reports it will issue and express our support for the UK’s presidency of the conference, with which we will work over the coming days and months, leading to the next session of the conference, which we look forward to hosting in Egypt on behalf of the African continent. During our presidency, we will seek to promote international climate action to reach the Paris Agreement goals so as to realize the interests of the peoples of our continent and the entire world.