The Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding (CCCPA), in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), hosted the first preparatory meeting to discuss the elements of a new initiative on climate change and the sustainability of peace.
The initiative comes in line with the Egyptian presidency of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the climate change convention (COP27), which will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh next November.
Representatives of international and regional organizations, international financial and development institutions participated in the meeting, including “Elena Panova”, the UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt, and “Sylvain Merlin”, the deputy representative of the UNDP , an official from the African Union Commission (AUC), in addition to experts from the relevant Egyptian ministries and research centres.
Ambassador Ayman Tharwat, deputy director of the climate, environment and sustainable development department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reviewed the Egyptian priorities of the Sharm El-Sheikh conference and the various initiatives put forward by the presidency.
Tharwat highlighted the importance of this initiative as it is the first time that this topic has been addressed at climate change conferences.
Ambassador Ahmed Abdel Latif, Director of the CCCPA, also discussed the objectives of the initiative Project and its main elements based on the conclusions of the third edition of the Aswan forum for sustainable peace and Development, held last June..
He added that the initiative comes from Egypt’s leadership of international cooperation to address climate change on the one hand and to promote and build peace internationally and regionally on the other.
The participants welcomed the initiative and stressed its importance in terms of addressing the repercussions of climate change on efforts to achieve peace and stability, especially in Africa.
In this context, they expressed their appreciation for Egypt’s keenness to promote it and their readiness to contribute to its implementation on the ground.
The initiative focuses on the African continent as the most affected by the consequences of climate change, although it is the continent that contributes the least to this phenomenon.
It is planned to implement programs and activities in various areas, including within the framework of the initiative, namely: adaptation to climate change in connection with strengthening peace-building efforts; in addition to supporting peace through resilient food security systems. The initiative also includes finding sustainable solutions that address the relationship between climate change and displacement, and increasing climate finance to achieve sustainable peace.
