No room for political polarisation at COP27: Egyptian foreign minister

Abu Dhabi / WAM    

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has articulated the central importance of the ‘COP27’ his country will host next month in the winter resort of Sharm El Sheikh, calling for pulling the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC out of the ongoing context of “strong political and economic polarisation and the dynamics of politicisation and contestation.”

“COP27 will be held amidst a global context of strong geopolitical and geo-economic tension and polarisation that we hope will not make it more difficult to tackle common global challenges, notably climate change. We need to spare this milestone session of the conference the ongoing international conflicts, disputes, and contestations, because any failure to address the climate change challenges, or any backtracking on climate pledges will get the world to a ‘point of no return’ beyond which extremely dangerous climate change impacts can become unavoidable,” the Egyptian top diplomat told the Emirates News Agency (WAM) in an interview held at the HQ of Egyptian Foreign Ministry in Cairo.

“This has been a message we’ve been sending out over the past period to all parties concerned, whether through the informal ministerial meetings that were held throughout the year or during the preparatory meeting for COP27, which was held in the DR Congo earlier this month,” he said.