Egypt seeks to host 2022 UN Climate Change Conference – minister

Egypt has proposed to host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP 27, in 2022, Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad said on Friday.

The final decision on Egypt’s hosting of COP 27 will be announced at the COP, the minister further said in an interview with state news agency MENA.

Egypt has submitted a letter to host the COP 27 and coordinated with the African group, the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN), and the council of African environment ministers, she added.

The 26 UN Climate Change Conference, hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy, will take place in the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, UK in November.

In November 2020, Egypt proposed to host the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to the UNFCCC in 2022, a decision that was taken at a difficult time when there was no manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines at that time.

Minister Fouad further said that every year, a certain region is selected to host the conference, and in 2022, it will be an African country’s turn to host the conference.

The decision on Egypt’s hosting of the COP 27 was adopted at a meeting by the African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) earlier in April in presence of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, she noted.

The minister cited Egypt’s initiative to convert fuel-powered cars to natural gas vehicles (NGVs) or electric vehicles (EVs).

The minister also referred to further steps taken to activate President al-Sisi’s initiative to combine the three Rio environment agreements that was launched during the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 14). Fouad said she took part in a ministerial meeting to set the stage for the United Nations Food Systems Summit, due in September 2021.