SHARM EL SHEIKH – A high-level ministerial round table on pre-2030 ambition kicked off here on Monday as part of the proceedings of the UN Climate Conference (COP27) in the presence of Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
Addressing the event, Shoukry asserted the importance of crystallizing clear political messages along with binding decisions that could protect future generations from the risks of climate change.
Shoukry called on all participants to hold scientific discussions in order to reach out to balanced outcomes that take into consideration all issues and efforts pertaining to the climate agenda.
Meanwhile, Stiell asserted that the high-level ministerial round table is to reach out to a global framework for countering climate change and discuss the joint fate of all parties.
The first annual high-level ministerial round table on pre-2030 ambition will be a unique opportunity to help set the global direction on pre-2030 mitigation ambition and implementation, providing a platform for discussing ways for how to put the global community firmly on the pathway towards achieving the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement (limiting the global average temperature increase to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels).
This first round table is taking place at a critical time, with the latest IPCC report released this year underlining that global GHG emissions need to peak before 2025 if the 1.5 °C or 2 °C goals are to be achieved. It is therefore imperative that this first round table lay the foundation for immediate action, starting directly in 2023.