CAIRO, Egypt — When Egypt hosts the COP27 climate summit this week, it expects an injection of foreign legitimacy as green financing at a time when its economy is suffering and facing growing human rights complaints.
The UN climate talks at the Sharm el-Sheikh city hotel, starting Sunday, November 7, will draw global media attention to Egypt in the same way the country last saw its “Arab Spring” uprising in 2011.
Since then, the country with the Arab world’s largest population has been rocked by political turmoil following the uprising, the army’s seizure of power, a lengthy crackdown on dissent and a series of economic upheavals that have reduced its classic role as a diplomatic actor in the Middle East and Middle East. Africa.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has sought to bring Egypt back onto the world stage, promising a new era of progress for the country despite persistent economic headwinds, which have seen the currency fall about 35% against the dollar since March.
“International legitimacy is at the core of everything that motivated his [COP27] candidacy,” said Hafsa Halawa, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute.
The government must show “that Egypt is not a country, that Egypt has the prowess, the diplomatic strength and the strength, the security presence to be a central figure,” he said.
In other projects to improve Egypt’s external image, Sisi has introduced a limited program that will begin some time after the climate summit. The state has also taken several steps to improve its human rights record, critics have dismissed those measures as largely cosmetic.
The COP27 presidency is led by the Foreign Ministry, which has a group of experienced negotiators and which, according to foreign diplomats, has a much larger capacity than climate ministries.
He hopes to leverage this experience to advance climate negotiations, despite an unpromising backdrop for primary nation commitments or big finance.
“We hope this is a watershed moment,” Wael Aboulmagd, a veteran Egyptian diplomat and special representative for COP27, told reporters Friday, noting that science shows the world is lagging behind in all facets of the fight against climate change.
“Everyone is aware of the gravity of the situation, of the enormity of the challenge. “
Egypt presents itself as a champion of Africa and South Africa, relying on a diplomatic crusade to win Africa’s in a dispute with Ethiopia over a dam on the Blue Nile that Cairo sees as a risk to its water supply.
He pushed for a “just” energy transition that allows poor countries to expand economically, a stimulus for reasonable climate finance, and a response to vulnerable states’ demands for payment for damage caused by excessive climate-induced events.
“Our goal is to restore the ‘big market’. . . through which emerging countries agreed to accentuate their efforts to deal with a crisis for which they are far less responsible, in exchange for sufficiently good monetary and other means of implementation, COP27 President-designate Egypt, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, wrote in a letter to parties and observers at the summit.
These priorities are in line with those of Egypt, as a fuel manufacturer with the best renewable energy prospects and highly vulnerable to climate change.
In an updated submission to the United Nations this year, Egypt said it faces a $246 billion investment hole to meet its 2030 climate goals.
Egypt hopes to sign a series of agreements, for green hydrogen and sun and wind energy projects, scheduled to coincide with COP27.
Some in Egypt explicitly wonder that the government is such a conference, given the low profile of environmentalism and restrictions on civic activism.
The presidency has said it will allow protests in designated spaces at the summit venue, with some activists fearing their voices will be restricted. Security forces have made dozens of arrests in connection with calls for protests elsewhere in Egypt.
However, COP27 may open a debate on political and environmental activity, said Rabab el-Mahdi, head of the allocation of studies on choice responses at the American University in Cairo.
“Organizing it forced the government and brought to society a broader discussion about climate change, which has been absent from the national debate in general,” he said Rappler. com.