Egypt’s Minister of Environment Khaled Fahmy said Friday that the Paris Agreement is considered as a big change in the international mutual efforts to face the danger of climate change, regarding the ability of countries to adapt with its negative impacts, and throughout the international cooperation to decrease its impacts, according to a statement from the Ministry of Environment .
During his participation at the 23th round of the conference of parties in Paris Agreement in Germany’s Bonn, Fahmy asserted Egypt’s efforts in cooperating with other African and Arab countries, in addition to China and the Group of 77 (G77) to complete negotiations regarding the Paris Agreement to reach an agreement in decreasing the emissions that causes global warming, and preserving rights of the developing countries.
The 23rd annual UN climate conference Cop23 kicked off in Germany’s Bonn two weeks ago (from 6 to 17 November), with participation of about 20000 participants representing 200 countries, with strong, unified calls to hold to the path of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Fahmy reviewed some of the African efforts and initiatives to adapt with climate change, including the African initiative for adaption, and the African initiative for renewable energy. He pointed out that the two initiatives were launched during Egypt’s chair of the African presidential committee for climate change.
Over the last years, Egypt has adopted several policies and plans for facing the challenge of climate change in accordance with the national strategy, Fahmy said. He added that Egypt also established the national council for climate change.
In the sidelines of the conference, Fahmy and the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdelaty in the meeting of Arab ministers who are participating in the cop23 conference.
During the meeting, Abdelaty praised the role of Arab debaters, saying that the Arab countries are not against development in upstream countries where the Arab rivers come from, but against the negative impacts on downstream countries especially amid climate change.
