Shoukry Chairs COP27 Group of Friends Meeting

Egypt's foreign minister Sameh Shoukry President-designate of the 27th session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, chaired, today, Wednesday, the first meeting of the COP27 Group of Friends, which was held virtually via video conference.

Ahmed Abu Zeid, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained that the COP27 Friends Group is an informal consultative framework for the President-designate of the conference, as it includes in its membership a  high-level group of experts in the field of climate change, former presidents of climate change conferences, ministers of the environment. and heads of a number of organizations.

Abu Zeid added that the foreign minister highlighted during the meeting the importance of realizing that this year's climate conference takes place in an international context full of challenges, and  represents an opportunity for various international parties to affirm their solidarity, and commitment to confronting climate change and overcoming differences in positions and viewpoints.

 In this context, Shoukry was keen to listen to the views of the participants on ways to deal with the challenges related to the current international climate action based on the accumulated experiences of the members of the group, and the vision of the Egyptian presidency in this regard.

Abu Zeid noted that at the end of the meeting, the members of the group expressed their confidence in the Egyptian presidency’s ability to organize the conference successfully and produce the hoped-for results to enhance the international climate action.