BERLIN – Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Monday that 13th Petersberg Climate Dialogue (PCD13) constitutes a turning point in facing climate change.
In his word during the dialogue, currently in session in Berlin, Shoukry lauded all efforts made to help countries in facing climate change and building bridges of confidence, in cooperation with the United Nations in this context.
Shoukry said that he is seeking to make the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to the UNFCCC, set for the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh from November 7 to 18, on top of the priorities at the international level, particularly in regard to helping developing countries in combating this vital and sensitive issue.
The primary task lies in supporting all genuine efforts and main partners and gathering them in one place to discuss means of resolving this problem, Shoukry said.
He further elaborated that he felt supportive and encouraging efforts in many regional forums to back this issue.
Shoukry stressed the need for all countries participating in the PCD13 to seek to bridge the gap related to the issue of climate change.
He also underlined the importance of mobilizing efforts to resolve this matter, particularly as this issue will be raised in the meeting between President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
He also hoped that today’s discussions will reach an agreement that will result in finding a solution to the climate change crisis, calling on all participants to seize all available opportunities to discuss all topics related to the climate change to set the stage for the COP27.
Shoukry also thanked German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock for her active participation in the success of the Petersburg Climate Dialogue, stressing that her cooperation had a significant impact on the success of the dialogue.
In his speech at the inaugural meeting of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue 2022, the Egyptian foreign minister stressed the necessity of taking decisive steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Shoukry said that a report on adaptation to climate change stated that the adaptation gap is increasing and that climate change faces many difficulties, a matter that leads to huge and immutable losses, in addition to the funding gap, which is also growing.
At the same time, world countries are dealing with a geopolitical situation that affects energy and food prices, Shoukry said, adding this comes at a time, countries are still trying to recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic after two years since its onset.
“Taking into account all these reasons, the matter has become more urgent, and we must now prove our strong political commitment, which was outlined when we held the Ministerial Meeting on Implementation in May in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as during the 6th Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA) in Stockholm,” Shoukry said.
In these two meetings, the participating ministers expressed a clear political commitment and their awareness of the importance of fulfilling commitments and striking an acceptable balance in terms of building confidence between all parties to deal with the various components related to climate change, Shoukry added.
He further noted that the countries participating in the Glasgow Summit felt frustrated as the summit has not done enough in this regard to provide compensation for losses and damages, stressing that the financial component of the damages should be dealt with in a way acceptable to all parties.
He went on to say that it is also important that our discussions should assert the world’s acceptance of all parties to deal with this issue.
He also hoped that the Berlin-hosted meeting will deal with this important issue in a way that could lead to a path towards more effective and substantial measures to deal with this matter, particularly within the framework of the COP27, set for Sharm El Sheikh in November.
In his speech at the 13th Petersberg Climate Dialogue, Shoukry said that Egypt is seeking to achieve the best results from COP27, urging all parties to implement the long-term strategies and make its indicators consistent with the Paris Agreement.
Shoukry said that in light of Egypt’s presidency of COP27, it is necessary to talk about social protection for groups that are most affected by climate change, noting that the climate summit to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh could come out with many results that will pave the way for future achievements in this regard.
As for the issue of climate finance, Shoukry said “We seek to ensure the full contribution of all countries in this regard,” adding Egypt, in light of its hosting of the climate summit, is confident that this summit will provide a powerful impetus and a clear political will to face climate change.
Shoukry stressed that the participation of non-governmental parties is very important, so an 11-day agenda has been set for the COP27 to discuss all different issues, including financing, decarbonisation, energy, biodiversity, empowering civil society, climate and the environment. These meetings will be led by a number of Egyptian ministers and senior officials, he noted.
Shoukry said that the German foreign minister also addressed how to benefit from renewable energy not only as a source to mitigate the effects of climate change, but also to achieve sustainable development that can benefit developed and developing countries at the same time.
