Africa’s emissions only 4%, yet continent will be badly affected by climate change: Egyptian Min.

CAIRO – 20 December 2021: Africa’s emissions do not exceed 4 percent of the total global emissions, yet the continent will be among the most affected, Egyptian Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad stated.

Minister Yasmine Fouad stressed the importance of establishing the African Resilience and Adaptation Center in Cairo to adapt to climate change in this regard, which comes to serve African countries.

She further explained that it is not an advisory board but seeks to obtain the necessary funding to adapt to climate change in the continent.

In her speech, the Minister of Environment indicated that Egypt will chair the negotiating session at the international level to finance the issue of climate change, based on its keenness to address this issue decisively and effectively.

This came during the plenary session held by the Egyptian Parliament on Monday tackling a request by a number of its members on clarifying the government’s policy on the measures taken to confront the phenomenon of climate change.

The session also highlighted the extent to which these measures conform to the international agenda set in this regard in accordance with standards specified in the relevant international conventions and treaties.

In the request for discussion, MP Walid Al-Tamami and around 20 other members indicated that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in New York on May 9, 1992 defined climate change as:

"Climate change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.”

Al-Tamimi added that the phenomenon of climate change is one of the most important environmental problems resulting from the increase in human activities and the consumption of non-renewable energy sources, adding that the international community has placed this issue at the forefront of its goals with the aim of finding appropriate solutions to it because of the imminent danger it poses to international peace and security.

He pointed out that the United Nations played a pivotal role in this field, supported the cause, and organized many meetings and conferences in an attempt to find effective treatments for the causes and effects of global climate change.

In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a special report on the impact of global warming of 1.5 degrees, highlighting a number of climate change impacts that could be avoided if the temperature rise was limited to 1.5 degrees instead of two or more degrees.

The MP called on the government to clarify its policies and procedures taken in this regard to confront this phenomenon and reduce its risks, the extent of their compatibility with international standards and agreements, and the classification hoped to be achieved according to the climate change performance index.