Taoiseach to attend UN climate summit in Egypt

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will arrive at the COP27 Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt later this morning and will stay for two days to outline Ireland’s climate priorities.

The priorities include a commitment to scale-up the country’s contribution to international climate finance as well as resolute support for progress to be made on compensation for loss and damage caused by climate change to vulnerable countries.

The UN’s COP27 climate summit got under way yesterday with warnings against backsliding on efforts to cut emissions and calls for rich nations to compensate poor countries after a year of extreme weather disasters.

Mr Martin is due to attend a working breakfast on the “Global Shield Against Climate Risks” with the President of Ghana Nana Akufo Addo, and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz.

Mr Martin will also attend high-level events and meetings on food security and the impact climate change has on the sustainability of poorer communities.

He will deliver Ireland’s formal statement to COP27 tomorrow afternoon.

The conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh comes in a fraught year marked by Russia’s war on Ukraine, an energy crunch, soaring inflation and the lingering effects from the Covid pandemic.

But Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate change executive secretary, said he would not be a “custodian of backsliding” on the goal of slashing greenhouse emissions 45% by 2030 to cap global warming at 1.5C above late-19th-century levels.

“We will be holding people to account, be they presidents, prime ministers, CEOs,” Mr Stiell said as the 13-day summit opened.

“The heart of implementation is everybody everywhere in the world every single day doing everything they possibly can to address the climate crisis,” he said.

Article Source: Taoiseach to attend UN climate summit in Egypt – George Lee – RTE

Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000