The 2022 Climate Change Conference of the Parties, popularly known as COP 27, kicked off on Sunday in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with a call for everyone to work to prevent a further climate crisis.
The Nigerian News Agency reports that no fewer than 50,000 delegates have so far registered for the annual global climate summit. The annual event, which takes place on the African continent for the second time, after 2001 in Marrakech, Morocco, will end on November 18.
“Everyone, every day, everywhere in the world must do everything to prevent the climate crisis,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
Stiell said that COP27 set a new direction for a new era of implementation, where the results of the formal and informal process really begin to come together to drive further climate progress.
The UN Climate Change Executive Secretary urged governments to focus on three critical areas at COP27. The first area, he said, was a transformational shift towards implementing the Paris Agreement and turning negotiations into concrete action.
“The second is to consolidate progress on critical mitigation, adaptation, fice, and loss and damage work streams, while notably stepping up to address climate change impacts.
“The third is to improve the delivery of the principles of transparency and accountability throughout the UN Climate Change process,” he said. NAA reports that the summit comes weeks after more than 600 lives were killed and millions made homeless in Nigeria by flooding, which many experts blamed on the effects of climate change.
The Egyptian presidency of COP27 has set an ambitious vision for the conference, one that will put human needs at the center of our global efforts to address climate change.
Sameh Shoukry, Foreign Minister of Egypt, said the presidency was intended to focus the world’s attention on key elements that address some of the most fundamental needs of people everywhere, including water security, food, health and energy security. Shoukry, who is also the president of COP27, said: “We meet this year at a time when global climate action is at a tipping point.
“Multilateralism is being challenged by geopolitics, spiraling prices and mounting official crises. While several hard-hit countries have barely recovered, severe and devastating climate change-induced disasters are becoming more frequent.
“COP27 creates a unique opportunity in 2022 for the world to come together, to make multilateralism work at the highest level to increase our ambition and action in the fight against climate change. COP27 should be remembered as the ‘implementation COP,’ the one where we restore the great deal that is at the heart of the Paris Agreement.”
