Youth should contribute to resolving climate change: Egypt

CAIRO – 23 September 2019: "Youth should be given the opportunity to provide innovative solutions and emerging projects to reduce the impacts of climate change, said Egyptian Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad.

This came in Fouad's speech at the official celebration of the World Day of Climate Resilience held on the sidelines of the 74th Session of the UNGA meetings at New York University Center.

The launching point to resisting climate change impacts is the youth themselves as they should learn how to build a future capable of resisting climate change, preserving biodiversity and reducing desertification, Fouad said, addressing more than 400 young men and women.

Fouad called on the international community to face climate change impacts, stressing that Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change impact, as Africa witnessed around 1,000 natural disasters that affected the lives of 200 million people and killed 400,000 others.

“Egypt is working on intensifying international cooperation to accelerate the enhancement of resilience to stand defiant against climate change’s ongoing impacts,” Fouad stressed.

Egypt and the United Kingdom will co-chair a coalition on climate adaptation and resilience at the 2019 Climate Change Summit due to kick off on Monday upon a call by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the 74th Session of the UNGA meetings in New York, amid biggest climate change protest ever worldwide.

The Egypt-UK coalition, which will be co-chaired by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, aims to raise funds to implement the resilience and adaptation strategies that address climate change impacts. The coalition was announced on June 30, 2019 by Minister Yasmine Fouad during a ministerial meeting held at Abu Dhabi on climate change.


Over the past few months, the coalition held discussions on the content of the political declaration that will be presented during the summit. The declaration will stress the necessity of fund-raising directed to efforts to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, to build resilience and resilience in developing countries, and promote technology transfer, said the Egyptian ministry in a statement on Sunday, Sept. 22.

Copies of the political declaration were sent by Egyptian and UK embassies to the political leaders of developing and developed countries alike, and to the heads of the boards of directors of companies, international institutions, banks and development agencies, international financial institutions, scholars and other parties, the statement added.

Additional reporting by Samar Samir