Egypt is intensifying coordination with other countries in preparation for the United Nations climate conference, COP27, which is only eight months away.
The event will be held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in November.
A host of climate action decision-makers and delegations visited Cairo last week, including US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry.
A Swedish high-level climate delegation also visited Egypt recently to discuss co-operation on the conference.
The delegation included Sweden’s chief climate negotiator, Matthias Frumerie, and the Stockholm+50 Ambassador, Johanna Lissinger.
In this interview with both Swedish officials, the Egyptian Mail explores details about their visit and aspects of co-operation between Cairo and Stockholm on climate issues.
The Swedish officials met during their visit the Egyptian Deputy Minister of Environment and Head of the Environmental Affairs Authority, Ali Abu Sinna, along with the Director of the Department for Environment and Sustainable Development Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Mohamed Nasr.
They also met representatives of the Cairo International Centre for Conflict Resolution, and Peacekeeping and Peace-building, as well as some members of the Swedish business community and some representatives of the Egyptian civil society.
Frumerie described Egypt’s hosting of COP27 as a ‘solid proof’ of the Arab country’s commitment to multilateral diplomacy and the implementation of the Paris Agreement as well as the Rio conventions.
Sweden, he said, is one of the largest contributors of climate finance globally, with climate development aid from the country rising to 15 billion Swedish kronor (roughly $1.7 billion).
Developed countries pledged to jointly mobilize $100 billion for climate action in developing countries annually.
Frumerie said Sweden works with other development partners to ensure they are all doing what they can to deliver this amount of money to developing nations.
“The UK presidency made efforts to bring donors together to ensure we would be delivering the finance as soon as possible,” he said. “The goal now is to deliver money from 2023 onwards.”
He said his country also works to tackle obstacles to access climate finance.
Countries, he said, need to improve the investment climate so they can attract the kind of investments needed for the actions.
He added that those countries also need to integrate climate action into their national budget and planning process.
“I do realize that this not as appealing as in providing new types of funds,” Frumerie said. “But it is a key measure for all countries to ensure that they have climate action at the heart of their policy-making.”
He said donors are as always available to have conversation with their development partners in terms of how they can support the kind of priorities that developing countries set for themselves in climate action.
He noted that Sweden is ready to support Egypt as president of the next climate conference.
“We enjoy excellent long-standing bilateral relations, and share a common goal,” Frumerie said.
He added that this goal is for the world to jointly limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, build societies resilient to climate change and avert environmental risks.
He added that Sweden works closely with Egypt to turn commitments in the Paris Agreement into national legislation.
“We hope this dialogue will be further advanced and deepened as we approach COP27,” he said.
Ambassador Lissinger, for her part, said she came to Egypt continue long-standing dialogue, not only about climate, but also about including this in the big transition that all countries need to go through.
“It is very important to come and learn the journey Egypt is taking and to share some of experience from the Swedish side in terms of regulatory frameworks, co-operation with the civil society, businesses, and youth,” she said. “We see this trip as one step in a continued dialogue.”
She noted that Sweden would host the Stockholm+50 Conference on June 2 and 3.
The conference, she said, is about our life and wellbeing on the planet and the building of blocks for the fair, green and sustainable future we want to see.
“We are keen that this conference serves as a bridge between COP26 and COP27,” Ambassador Lissinger said.
She added that Egypt co-operates closely with Sweden and will co-host the leadership dialogue about implementing the environmental dimension of sustainable development.
Sweden has set up the Fossil Free Sweden Initiative in 2015, where local, regional, and business actors worked together to develop a roadmap for fossil-free competitiveness.
The plan includes projects to achieve green transformation in the steel, cement, and mobility sectors.
Sweden aspires to become the first fossil-free welfare state by 2045.
“It is encouraging what we hear from society and business actors, in particular,” Ambassador Lissinger said. “Transformation is going much quicker than originally planned.”
She mentioned the example of one of Sweden’s major steel producers that announced it had already planned to be fossil-free by 2045.
“Now, the producer said it would be fossil-free by 2030 instead,” she said. “There is incredible speed in transformation.”
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