Sisi calls for more sustainable production, consumption to avoid global catastrophe

12 / 10 / 2021

• Egypt
• news
• Sustainable Development

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi urged world countries to join hands to turn production and consumption patterns to be more sustainable and aware about the importance of protecting biodiversity in order to avoid a global catastrophe.

Addressing the Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 15), Sisi cautioned that the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO) report portended a global catastrophe.

He said the report – issued by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity – set off alarm bells in view of the rapid deterioration over the past years.

Sisi said “We live a crucial phase in human history, that requires exerting consistent efforts to unite and confront the huge challenges ahead. The Coronavirus pandemic exacerbated such huge challenges where we are still dealing with its negative repercussions at all levels.”

Sisi noted that Egypt exerted strenuous efforts since the Sharm El-Sheikh CBD COP in 2018 to launch a new phase of collective action to draw up a “Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”, and to set viable targets backed by clear implementation mechanisms.

“However, despite the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic during the past two years, the Egyptian Chairmanship of the conference has been capable of realizing tangible achievements in this concern,” voicing hope that the coming period would witness an effective implementation of such targets to make up for the shortcomings during the past ten years.

Sisi said Egypt is honored to hand over  the presidency of the conference to the friendly People’s Republic of China. “Egypt is confident in the ability of the Chinese side to resume such significant work that all our peoples are aspiring to, in order to protect the biodiversity and the bio-systems on our planet.”

“In this context, we are looking forward to proceeding with our efforts with China during the coming two years to attain such goal. I wish the Chinese side good luck and success in realizing the objectives of the agreement,” he concluded.