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COP27 opens in Egypt; UN Climate Change Secretary promises ‘not to be a custodian of backsliding’
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#Egypt, November 16, 2022 – The Caribbean was well represented at the opening ceremony of the Conference of the Parties or COP27, this year held in Egypt and Grenadian, Simon Stiell, who is the UN’s Climate Change Executive Secretary, issued a call to action to all countries in attendance reminding them to honor their obligations.
“Paris gave us the agreement, Katowice and Glasgow gave us the plan, Sham el-Sheikh shifts us to implementation, no one can be a passenger on this journey. This is a signal that times have changed–” the secretary stressed.
“I am not in the habit of rescinding my word. I firmly expect all parties to act the same way. Stick to your
The opening ceremony held on November 6th meant the event has officially begun in earnest with 35,000 global delegates for the 12-day conference in an attempt to hammer out agreements aimed at staving off, irreversible global change.
Commenting on a recent report done by the UN in the weeks leading up to COP27, Stiell revealed that only 29 of the over 194 countries that had agreed to update their climate change plans at COP26 had actually done so.
During his speech referencing his background as a citizen of a small archipelago he explained that he knew the beauty and the vulnerability of living on an island firsthand stressing that it was time for all to be accountable in the issue of climate change.
“Today a new era begins and we begin to do things differently. We will be holding people to account be they Presidents, Prime Ministers or CEO’s– because our policies, our infrastructure, our business and our actions, be they personal or public, must align with the Paris Agreement. The heart of implementation is everybody everywhere in the world, every single day doing everything they possibly can to address the climate crises.”
He maintained there were some countries who “refused to act unless others do” and swore that they would not be allowed to slow down the collective process. Specifically mentioning developing countries were absorbing ‘impact after impact’ he said the international community had a duty to ‘turn words into action.’