With just three weeks to go, the 28th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP28) on climate change gets underway. From 30 November to 2 December 2023, the leading players, including governments, civil society organisations (CSOs) and even companies that are constantly being singled out for industrial pollution, will be meeting in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The aim is to assess progress in climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience across the five continents.
But before the big event, three emblematic figures of the ecological transition are sending a message to the world to take up the challenge of the climate emergency. They are Sameh Shoukry, President of COP 27 and current Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alain Donwahi, President of COP15 on desertification and former Ivorian Minister of Water and Forests, and Huang Runqiu, President of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) and Chinese Minister of Ecology and the Environment.
In their joint statement, they first acknowledge the lack of capital that has significantly slowed down the implementation of the 17 goals (SDGs) in developing countries, before noting that the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which have just replenished their resources for the second and eighth time respectively, “are increasingly able to meet the financing needs of multi-sectoral projects and programmes”.
A call for closer cooperation
In the following lines, Sameh Shoukry, Alain Donwahi and Huang Runqiu suggest strengthening cooperation on a global scale to better prevent or mitigate land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change, the consequences of which (food insecurity, floods and droughts) are no longer in doubt today.
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“Countries, businesses and communities can draw inspiration from the clear ambitions, objectives and principles of each Rio Convention. The upcoming meetings of the Conferences of the Parties will be important opportunities to foster collaboration at all levels and pave the way so that no one is left behind in our quest for a sustainable future for humankind,” conclude the three ministers.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi