Egypt to fight against backslide of climate goals at COP27

Mr Sameh Shoukry speaking during the closing press conference of a Petersberg Climate Dialogue meeting in Berlin, Germany, on July 19, 2022. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

CAIRO (BLOOMBERG) - Egypt, the country hosting COP27 later this year, wants to ensure there's no backtracking on past commitments to slow the pace of climate change - even as global leaders grapple with food shortages, an energy crisis and high inflation.

The annual United Nations-sponsored Conference of Parties is scheduled for November in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry, who is also the conference's president, spoke to Bloomberg News about the challenges ahead.

"The conference is going to be held in a difficult geo-political situation, with the world facing energy and food challenges," he said in written answers to questions.

"Of course all of this could impact the level of ambition and might lead to distractions of the climate change priority."

Egypt's goal is to prevent that from happening, Mr Shoukry said.

As the first African country to host a COP meeting in six years, it also wants to focus on how developing nations can get funding to adapt to the changing climate and to finance the green energy transition.

"We hope that COP27 will first confirm the political commitment to climate change and the agreed transition at the highest level," he said.

The main focus of COP27 is to "raise ambition" and confirm "no backsliding or backtracking on commitments and pledges" made in past summits, he said.

Thousands of climate diplomats representing virtually every country in the world meet every year at COP.

The gathering also attracts tens of thousands of activists, observers, businesspeople and media, making it the world's largest international summit by number of people. COP26 talks in Glasgow last year - the first to happen after the coronavirus pandemic - saw 40,000 people and 120 world leaders attending.

COP meetings are the vehicle through which the global community coordinates actions to cut planet-warming greenhouse-gas emissions.

The ultimate goal is to cap the rise of global average temperatures which, at the moment, are headed for an increase of around 2.7 deg C or more by the end of the century, from the average of pre-industrial times.

Such an increase would be catastrophic, threatening life as we know it today, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The global community agreed at the COP21 meeting in Paris in 2015 to take steps to keep the temperature increase at 2 deg C, and ideally close to 1.5 deg C.

The world has already warmed about 1.2 deg C, and the window to meet the Paris commitment is shrinking, Mr Shoukry said.

"The science is clear and indicates that we are still not on track with regard to achieving the temperature goal, preparing for the adaptation challenges, or meeting the finance targets," he said.

"These gaps need to be bridged."

But the global fight to tackle climate change is rubbing against a scramble for fossil fuels - including Egyptian natural gas - as Europe tries to move away from using Russian oil, gas and coal.

That's caused prices of natural gas to spike and led to a revival of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, with countries burning whatever they can get their hands on.

"This is a major concern," Mr Shoukry said.

"It is jeopardising decarbonisation and the energy transition."

The plummeting cost of renewable power should lead to large investments into cleaner forms of energy, Mr Shoukry said.

But the current geopolitical situation suggests the switch to renewable power will take longer than the global community anticipated at the COP meeting in Glasgow last year, the minister said.

At the heart of the matter is how developing nations, and particularly African nations, implement this transition while making sure economic growth is not impacted.

At Glasgow last year, poorer nations argued they shouldn't be deprived of the opportunity to exploit their oil and gas reserves.

Since then they have been stressing the priority of this year's meeting should be on getting rich countries to pay more to help them transition to clean energy.

"It's incumbent upon us to listen carefully to African concerns and to ensure that African priorities, such as adaptation and resilience," Mr Shoukry said.

Adding that negotiations on finance should take into consideration "the needs of communities across Africa, who are suffering more than any other continent from the impacts of climate change."

Europe's rush to buy African natural gas, while lagging behind funding of green infrastructure and of gas pipelines and power plants has countries like Angola, Nigeria or Senegal hooked on dirtier fossil fuels and is delaying the access for hundreds of millions of people to electricity. Mr Shoukry wants COP27 to agree on further, increased sums transferred after 2025.

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