Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for African Affairs Hamdi Sanad Loza participated in the opening of the eighth World Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union for Young Parliamentarians in Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday.
During the opening session, Loza delivered a speech on behalf of FM Sameh Shoukry in which he stressed the importance of the conference as an important platform to highlight the contributions and voices of young parliamentarians towards many contemporary issues and challenges.
It said that the conference’s choice of climate change as the main issue for its discussions is of particular importance in light of the approaching UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 27) in Sharm El-Sheikh this November.
It also explained that Egypt chose the issue of implementing climate pledges as the main priority of the COP 27, stressing that implementation will not be complete or realistic without engaging in an in-depth dialogue with representatives of all parties concerned with climate action, including young people — who represent the largest percentage of the population of our planet — as well as parliamentarians, who have an essential role in advancing climate action at the national, continental, and international levels.
In this regard, the speech referred to the constructive role played by the Egyptian parliament in coordination with the Egyptian government to develop legislation that would better deal with environmental issues and climate change.
It also stressed the importance of doing more to address the escalating climate crisis, as the negative effects associated with climate change have cast a shadow on all economic sectors around the world and are hindering the development efforts of many countries.
Furthermore, it pointed out the great challenges facing efforts to confront climate change in light of various international developments and their wide negative consequences on food and energy security, as well as the economic and social repercussions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, from which the world is still recovering.
