Momentum for COP27 Grows in Egypt

Language: 
English
Sent On: 
Thu, 2022-09-29
Year: 
2022
Newsletter Number: 
33

The 2022 UN Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, is scheduled to take place on the Red Sea in Sharm al-Shaykh, Egypt, from November 6th to November 18th. Because of the formidable challenges posed by climate change, the conference will be a moment of global significance. It will also be a moment of unique and profound significance for Egypt as it hosts an international event of this magnitude and welcomes thousands of leaders from all over the world. The COP climate conferences stretch back to 1995 when the first meeting was held in Berlin. Following this year’s conference in Egypt, COP 28 is scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates in November 2023.

 

Like other countries in the MENA region, Egypt is uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as it experiences rising temperatures, desertification, elevated sea levels, and water scarcity. To consider one pressing example, the lowland Nile Delta region, a key Egyptian agricultural zone, is threatened by rising salt water sea levels from the Mediterranean. As the Nile river itself faces increased water flow shortages due to the Renaissance Dam which became operational in Ethiopia in 2020, it becomes more difficult to flush the salt water out of the Delta region.

 

Egypatian Ambassador Wael Aboulmagd at the AUC event

 

An associate of Dialogue Across Borders, Kseniia Popova, reported from an event on September 5th organized by the American University in Cairo (AUC) featuring Ambassador Wael Aboulmagd [Wāʾil Abū al-Majd], the Egyptian ambassador to Brazil and a special representative for COP 27. Kseniia is a sustainable development project manager at SEKEM, an umbrella institution focused on sustainable development that was founded in Egypt in 1977 by the noted scientist and entrepreneur, Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish [Ibrāhīm Abū al-ʿĪsh]. Dialogue Across Borders has been privileged to work with SEKEM in recent years and helped organize a summer school for intercultural dialogue in 2018 with the Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development, a key SEKEM affiliate.

 

At the AUC event, Ambassador Abū al-Majd discussed some general themes and also provided more detailed information about COP27. At the global level, the ambassador stressed the need for cooperation and leadership between China and the United States, the world’s two largest CO2  emitters. Reliable estimates suggest that China and the United States together comprise almost 40% of global CO2 emissions. Regarding COP27 itself, the ambassador noted that more than 30,000 people are expected to attend the conference at Sharm al-Shaykh. Following the practice of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, COP27 will also feature a “blue zone” and a “green zone.” The blue zone is for those individuals and parties that are formally registered with the United Nations, while the green zone is more porous and provides space to a diversity of civil society organizations from Egypt and elsewhere. Each day at the conference will tackle a different theme, including climate finance, science, decarbonization, youth, gender, and water.

 

You can read more from Kseniia’s report here. In upcoming weeks, Dialogue Across Borders will work to provide insightful coverage of COP27 as the social and political momentum forming around this important conference continues to grow.

 

Official websites 

COP27 Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, 2022

United Nations Climate Change

COP27 Schedule

 

 

Best Wishes,


Matthew Anderson

Editor-in-Chief, Dialogue Across Borders

Cairo, September 29, 2022