“Energy Day” kicks off in Sharm as part of COP27

In the presence of the Egyptian Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker, an “Energy Day” kicked off here on Tuesday as part of the international climate summit, COP27, currently taking place in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city.

Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, in a speech read out by infrastructure commissioner at the pan-African body Amany Abu Zeid on his behalf, stressed the need for sustainable clean energy that would lead to economic and climate sustainability worldwide.

Africa is proud of Egypt’s great organisation of this important international conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Moussa said, thanking the world community for its non-stop efforts to face the problem of climate change.

Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, in his speech read out by infrastructure commissioner at the pan-African body Amany Abu Zeid on his behalf, said “what happened in the past two weeks makes us feel optimistic about the international community’s co-operation and solidarity to solve the climate crisis.”

The African continent has great energy resources, she said, adding that there is a great opportunity for investment in Africa to respond to the challenges and address the energy problems.

She also stressed the necessity of Africa’s possession of clean and sustainable energy to achieve development in the brown continent.

She called for spreading the culture of green environment in the near future to limit the problems of global warming and the earth’s temperature and all problems related to climate change.

Abu Zeid underlined the importance of the leaders’ commitment to implementing strategies to confront climate change, adding that African Union countries have plans to achieve development through clean energy.

Abu Zeid also stressed the importance of the contribution of the private sector and civil society to the implementation of the development agenda in Africa.

Addressing the gathering, European Union Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen stressed the need to reach “ambitious and effective” agreements that would contribute to stopping fires, floods and all problems caused by climate change worldwide.

She urged commitment to providing compensations for the problems caused by climate change.

The EU is concerned with solving the natural gas crisis through turning to renewable energy in Europe to make up 45 per cent of the total energy produced, von der Leyen said.