The United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) COP27 opened on Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, aiming to ensure full implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Simon Stiell, the new Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC), said at the opening of COP27 that the conference should shift the world towards implementing previously agreed plans to tackle humanity’s greatest challenge.

“Today, a new era begins – and we begin to do things differently. Paris gave us the agreement. Katowice and Glasgow gave us the plan; Sharm el-Sheik shifts us to implementation. No one can be a mere passenger on this journey,” stated Mr Stiell.

He added, “Because our policies, our businesses, our infrastructure, our actions, be they personal or public, must be aligned with the Paris Agreement and with the [UN Climate] Convention.”

The UNFCCC convention entered into force on March 21, 1994, to prevent “dangerous” human interference with the climate system.

Today, ratified by 198 countries, it has near-universal membership. The Paris Agreement, agreed in 2016, works as an extension of that convention.

Acknowledging the current complex geopolitical situation, Mr Stiell said that COP27 was an opportunity to create a safe political space, shielded from whatever is going on out there to work and deliver world change.

“Here in Sharm el-Sheikh, we have a duty to speed up our international efforts to turn words into actions,” he emphasised.

The UNFCCC executive secretary underlined three critical lines of action for the conference, noting that the first is to demonstrate a transformation shift to implementation by putting negotiations into concrete actions.

Mr Stiell said 29 countries had now come forward with tightened national climate plans since COP26, five more since the publication of last week’s UNFCCC NDC Synthesis report, but still not a majority.

He reminded delegates that in 2021, the Glasgow Climate Pact was agreed upon at COP26, and he expected them not to rescind their word.

“Stick to your commitments. Build on them here in Egypt. I will not be a custodian of back-sliding,” he said

(NAN)