Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, COP27 President, participated on November 17, 2022, in the COP27 Methane Ministerial, held as part of Solutions Day, the last thematic day of the Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Conference. The event was attended by Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for the European Green Deal and Climate Change Negotiations, John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada, and Yannick Glemarec, the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Director of the Public Diplomacy Department, Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid, stated that Minister Shoukry affirmed during his speech that methane gas represents a powerful greenhouse gas causing climate change, which makes cutting methane emissions an essential matter in order to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius as stipulated in the Paris Agreement. In this regard, the Foreign Minister referred to the Global Methane Pledge GMP that was launched during the previous Ministerial at the Glasgow Climate Conference last year, which represents an ambitious initiative aimed at reducing methane emissions by 30% by 2030.
Ambassador Abu Zeid added that Minister Shoukry asserted, in the same context, Egypt’s awareness of the importance of the issue of methane emissions, for which it joined the Global Methane Pledge Energy Pathway, and reflected as well in Egypt’s updated nationally determined contributions to reduce emissions, which focused on the gas and oil sector as one of the major sectors targeted to reduce their emissions.
The Spokesperson concluded his remarks by noting that the Foreign Minister appealed to states that have not yet joined the Methane Pledge to join it, and called for seizing this meeting to determine what has been accomplished since the launch of the GMP last year, and for all parties to enhance their contributions in the field of reduction, including via providing technical and financial support to developing countries which seek to reduce their methane emissions.
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