Egypt’s Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, met with Mami Mizutori, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, to discuss issues related to climate change.
The meeting came as part of Egypt’s preparations to host the 27th Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, and in the presence of Elena Panova, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Egypt.
During the meeting, the Minister of Environment stressed that it will build on the outcomes of the COP26, as it had many successful outputs, such as the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and the opening of many work programmes such as adaptation to climate change and climate finance, which are considered among the most important topics for developing countries.
She also added that she will participate next week in the first informal ministerial discussions on adaptation, noting that the COP27 is an implementation conference, so Egyptian success stories will be collected to be presented during the conference in various fields such as agriculture, fishing, women, policy programmes, and investment.
Yasmine further stressed the importance of the support of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in the areas of water, food security, and early warning, in addition to presenting success stories in the field of modern technology and its ability to reduce disaster risks and how to enhance the resilience of women and local communities to climate change and adapt to climate crises.
Moreover, the minister mentioned the possibility to work on declaring Sharm El-Sheikh the first centre for resilience in Africa, as well as obtaining the ISO certificate on the sidelines of the upcoming Sustainable Cities Conference.
On her part, Mizutori, said that the cooperation with Egypt will be undertaken in the field of risk reduction and disasters, in addition to supporting the acceleration of climate finance and financing adaptation from the private and public sectors.
