Climate action should go hand in hand with development efforts, and should not affect poverty and unemployment rates in African states, said the go-to man for climate change in Egypt Sunday.

Mahmoud Mohieldin, the UN high-level climate change champion for Egypt, said Cairo adopts a harmonious and comprehensive approach that toes the line of advanced countries.

Climate action is not only about de-carbonization, Mohieldin said in a telephone call with the “Good Morning Egypt” show on Egypt’s Channel One, stressing that investment is needed in this file as well.

The upcoming international climate summit, COP27, does have a big African aspect, Mohieldin said, adding that it will focus on implementing resolutions of the COP26.

That’s why Egypt pays big attention to investments in climate action, he noted.

The COP27 is expected to outline suitable solutions to food security problems as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war, rather than focusing on long-term changes, Mohieldin said.

He called for increasing agricultural productivity and rationalizing water consumption in line with priorities of the climate action.

Advanced countries had vowed to pay 100 billion dollars annually in compensation to developing nations for accumulative problems due to bad management of production processes that depended on resources pollutant to the environment. Only 79 percent of that sum has been secured so far, Mohieldin told the TV show, urging advanced countries to live up to their promise.

He underlined big climate changes in Europe, Africa and Asia, stressing this is enough proof of how dangerous the situation is.

Source: State Information Service Egypt