Egypt: The Environment Minister, Yasmin Fouad, has recently met with the Ambassador of Belarus, Mr Sergei Tertentiev, to discuss and promote bilateral cooperation in the field of environmental and climate investment locally and internationally.
As per the reports, the meeting was held in Cairo, Egypt, to shed light on ways to promote cooperation between the two countries in the field of environment and global collaboration, especially in the climate change file.
In addition, Dr Yasmin Fouad has confirmed Egypt’s success by hosting the climate conference COP27 in pushing the global climate agenda at an awkward time the world is experiencing, referring to Egypt preparing a partnership agreement with the UAE to move forward towards the upcoming climate conference COP28.
According to the reports, considering COP28 as part of Egypt’s mission to follow up on the decisions issued On Sharm El-Sheikh’s executive plan for the climate conference cop27, specifically related to the Damage Fund and its governance, also the Global Adaptation Target and the new collective funding target, and the best ways to move forward in the mitigation field.
Minister Fouad further called on the need to work on the initiatives launched during the COP27 climate conference by focusing on urgent priority initiatives to propose to work with partners at the upcoming COP28 climate conference.
The initiatives include Africa’s 2020 Waste Management Initiative, the Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions Initiative and the Gender Initiative (women).
Which category is most affected by climate change and how to combat it in 3 areas are food, water and energy, as well as the FAST agriculture initiative on food security, water initiative,
and how to utilize early alarm systems to counter the impact of climate change at sea level and water issues; the Minister called on Belarus to participate in these initiatives to move forward towards their implementation steps.
In his remarks, the Ambassador of Belarus, Sergei Tertentiev, praised the statements of the Egyptian Environment Minister on the importance of changing the society’s culture in the environment, preserving natural resources and facing global challenges.
The Ambassador further pointed out his country’s keenness to work on the outcome of the COP27 climate conference in light of the extended relations between Egypt and Belarus for the future of future generations and also to support the road towards the climate conference Upcoming COP28 and welcome cooperation with Egypt to work on its initiatives.
The two parties also discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries, as the Minister pointed out the opening of investment opportunities in the environment field in Egypt,
especially in the area of natural reserves management to provide the private sector to provide eco-tourism-related services; a package of eco-tourism projects in Egypt based on natural resources is currently being prepared.
In the end, Dr Yasmin Fouad and Sergei Tertentiev concluded the meeting by discussing the possibility of extending the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries,
which saw the implementation of many joint activities, especially in air and water quality monitoring, and creation of a collaborative ministry working group on reducing air pollution.