This is our last chance

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, or COP27, is the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference and is being held from 6 November until 18 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The above reported by WikiPedia.

It is my birthday today. I am not a young man and trying not to think of the next few years for there’s no guarantee that I shall be alive.

I was born in London in the last few months of the Second World War and grew up in those early days thinking that it was normal to see bombed-out buildings in many areas. However I have had a lucky life, born of atheist parents, and I would like to see the planet becoming more and more hospitable, in terms of a minimum of global warming, as I approach the end days.

COP27 has to be different to all the COPs that have proceeded it. We have to have nations commit to actions now and move forward from the pledges and promises made last year. This is not like an asteroid hitting the planet! This is a subtle increase in  the temperature and all that goes with that. Frankly, 1.5 deg C. is likely to be difficult to achieve. But 1.51 deg C. is better than 1.6 deg C. and so on. That is why we need action now.

I am going to continue today’s post by republishing the President’s Welcome Message. Here is the President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and the copy of his address to the delegates.

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The hosting of COP27 in the green city of Sharm El-Sheikh this year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In the thirty years since, the world has come a long way in the fight against climate change and its negative impacts on our planet; we are now able to better understand the science behind climate change, better assess its impacts, and better develop tools to address its causes and consequences.

Thirty years and twenty-six COPs later, we now have a much clearer understanding of the extent of the potential climate crisis and what needs to be done to address it effectively. The science is there and clearly shows the urgency with which we must act regarding rapidly reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, taking necessary steps to assist those in need of support to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, and finding the appropriate formula that would ensure the availability of requisite means of implementation that are indispensable for developing countries in making their contributions to this global effort, especially in the midst of the successive international crises, including the ongoing food security crisis exacerbated by climate change, desertification and water scarcity, especially in Africa that suffers the most impacts.

In 2015, the world came together and showed the will to make the necessary compromises which led to the successful adoption of the Paris Agreement. Today and in light of the unmistakable messages in the recent IPCC reports, and following COP26 in Glasgow, we are once again called upon to act rapidly if we are to really meet the 1.5-degree goal, build our resilience, and enhance our capacity to adapt. And while these are no doubt major undertakings, I sincerely believe that they can also become opportunities for transformation towards sustainability if we collectively think creatively and demonstrate the necessary political will.

With this in mind, Egypt and its people look forward to welcoming you all at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, where we trust the world will come together, yet again, to reaffirm its commitment to the global climate agenda despite the difficulties and uncertainties of our time. I am positive that all parties and stakeholders will be coming to Sharm El-Sheikh with a stronger will and a higher ambition on mitigation, adaptation and climate finance, demonstrating actual success stories on implementing commitments and fulfilling pledges.

I deeply believe that COP27 is an opportunity to showcase unity against an existential threat that we can only overcome through concerted action and effective implementation. As incoming Presidency Egypt will spare no effort to ensure that COP27 becomes the moment when the world moved from negotiation to implementation and where words were translated to actions, and where we collectively embarked on a path towards sustainability, a just transition and eventually a greener future for coming generations.

Welcome to Sharm El-Sheikh. Welcome to COP27.

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Lastly, one of the items on the COP27 news feed:

What I can do to help stop climate change?

There you go! Please be green! We are in the last chance saloon!

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