COP27: Perspective with Environment Analyst

Prior to COP27, Environment Analyst in Egypt spoke with Amr Abdel-Aziz from Integral to get a local’s viewpoint and expectations. Visit the original story on EA by clicking the excerpt from the article below.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) of this year, which runs from November 6 through 18, will be dubbed the Africa COP and the COP of implementation. It will be held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Making significant climate progress will be necessary in an unstable, disrupted global economy, and underdeveloped nations anticipate getting long-awaited largesse from the developed world.

COP27 may possibly turn out to be a “consultants COP.” For addressing climate change and its effects and maintaining the 1.5C objective, there is great potential in new and developing funding approaches and innovative projects.

According to Amr Abdel-Aziz, chairman of Cairo-based Integral Consult, a member of the global Inogen Alliance of environmental consulting businesses, “there is a sense of urgency and all sides are determined to have a successful outcome.” Abdel-Aziz, who is also a member of the COP27 leadership team, continued, “We have seen a temporary push back on the mitigation front due to the war in Europe, and one of our priorities is to get countries back on track.

COP27

According to Magatte Guisse, the UNHCR representative in Somalia, “vulnerable groups are the hardest struck by the effects of the climatic catastrophe, leaving many families unprotected and [leading to] increased displacement.” Before this most recent crises, the Somalia situation was already among the most underfunded.

The COP27 will place a high priority on how to increase efforts to stop deforestation and reduce emissions from the developed world that are impacting Africa. The main topic of discussion will be how to pay for those initiatives in a still sputtering, inflation-ridden global economy.

There is a new storyline that examines many financial sources, claims Abdel-Aziz. He anticipates that new measures may revolve around financial tools like debt swaps, in which the debts of developing nations are written off or lowered in exchange for agreements to provide the same amount of funding to combat climate change.

It appears that the difficulty for COP27 is to replace strong statements with practical, affordable initiatives. The African COP has a lot to live up to in this regard.