Foreign Ministry: Cairo's hosting of G77 meeting unprecedented by any G77 chair

CAIRO - 12 November 2018: The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Cairo's hosting of the coordination meeting of the G77 and China on climate change negotiations is unprecedented by any other state chairing the G77.

In a press release on Sunday, the ministry said the meeting - which was held on Friday and Saturday - was organized by the Environment Ministry and the Foreign Ministry in tandem with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Group of 77 (G-77) was established on 15 June 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries signatories of the “Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Developing Countries” issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva.

On Friday, Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad inaugurated the meeting which falls within the framework of ongoing efforts to coordinate stances of developing countries in the face of developed states ahead of the start of the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) that will be held in Katowice, Poland between Dec. 2 and 14.

Speaking at the event, Fouad said that the Environment Ministry has been keen on organizing such important meetings at this time to reach a consensus among the developing countries with regard to attaining the main goal of the 2015 Paris climate agreement on climate change to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The minister pointed out that Cairo will put forward a climate change-related initiative during the activities of the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that will kick off on Nov. 14 in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El Sheikh.

The initiative is meant to achieve integration among the three Rio Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification.

Meanwhile, she asserted the importance of reaching a package of decisions to effectively implement the Paris Agreement goals, topped by keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C .