Cairo calls for climate justice ahead of COP30 in Brazil

Egypt has called on world leaders to make the upcoming COP30 climate summit a moment of “frank review” to bridge the widening gap between climate pledges and actual implementation.

Delivering Egypt’s address on behalf of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Minister of Local Development and Acting Minister of Environment Manal Awad emphasized that the conference, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, must serve to renew global trust and cooperation.

Awad delivered Egypt’s statement on Thursday, November 6, 2025, during the High-Level Segment of the Leaders’ Summit in Belém, Brazil, held ahead of the official opening of the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on November 10.

She warned that the multilateral system is facing serious challenges that threaten the spirit of global cooperation, urging all parties to “revive the spirit of Paris — built on justice, trust, and shared responsibility.”

A central theme of Egypt’s message was the persistent shortfall in climate finance, which remains “below the required level.”

Awad stressed that the new collective quantified goal on climate finance must be determined according to the needs of developing countries, ensuring a fair balance between mitigation and adaptation. She underlined that new funding mechanisms should be based on grants and concessional finance, not loans, to avoid increasing the debt burden of vulnerable nations.

She highlighted that adaptation to climate change is an “existential priority for the African continent,” where droughts, water scarcity, and rising sea levels threaten millions of lives. Awad reiterated the need to double adaptation finance and to fully operationalize the Global Goal on Adaptation to support the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities.

While welcoming the progress achieved on the Loss and Damage Fund—one of the key outcomes of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh—the Minister called for the rapid mobilization of new, grant-based resources to ensure that developing countries are not further burdened by debt.

Awad reaffirmed that climate justice must be the cornerstone of any fair global climate system. She emphasized that moving from pledges to full implementation requires providing genuine support, not imposing new obligations beyond those agreed upon in the Paris Agreement.

She further underscored that Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) remain a sovereign right of every nation, to be defined in accordance with its capabilities and development priorities. Awad cautioned against unilateral measures—such as carbon border adjustment mechanisms—that could impose new constraints or undermine just transition pathways for developing nations.