By Asmau Ahmad
The conference of Parties on Climate Change, popularly known as COP 27, has begun on Sunday in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with a call on everyone to work toward averting further climate crisis.
No fewer than 50,000 delegates have so far registered for the annual global climate summit.
The annual event, being held on the African continent for a second time, after 2001 in Marrakech, Morrocco, will end on November 18.
“Everybody, every single day, everywhere in the world, needs to do everything they possibly can to avert the climate crisis,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
Stiell said COP27 set out a new direction for a new era of implementation, where outcomes from the formal and informal process truly begin to come together to drive greater climate progress.
The UN Climate Change executive secretary urged governments to focus on three critical areas at COP27.
The first area, he said was a transformational shift to implementation of the Paris Agreement and putting negotiations into concrete actions.
“The second is cementing progress on the critical workstreams of mitigation, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage while stepping up finance notably to tackle the impacts of climate change.
“The third is enhancing the delivery of the principles of transparency and accountability throughout the UN Climate Change process,” he said.
The summit is coming up weeks after more than 600 lives were killed and millions of people rendered homeless in Nigeria due to flooding, which many experts blamed on the effects of climate change.
COP27 Presidency vision is based on human needs, says Egypt
The Egyptian COP27 Presidency has set out an ambitious vision for the conference, one that will put human needs at the heart of our global efforts to address climate change.
Sameh Shoukry, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said the presidency intended to focus the world’s attention on key elements that address some of the most fundamental needs of people everywhere, including water security, food security, health, and energy security.
Shoukry, who is also the COP27 President, said: “We’re gathering this year at a time when global climate action is at a watershed moment.
“Multilateralism is being challenged by geopolitics, spiraling prices, and growing financial crises.
“While several countries battered by the pandemic have barely recovered, and severe and depleting climate change-induced disasters are becoming more frequent.
“The COP27 creates a unique opportunity in 2022 for the world to unite, to make multilateralism work by restoring trust and coming together at the highest levels to increase our ambition and action in fighting climate change.
“COP27 must be remembered as the ‘Implementation COP’ – the one where we restore the grand bargain that is at the centre of the Paris Agreement.”
