President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi delivered the opening speech at the 14th UN Biodiversity Conference (COP14) which brought together representatives from 196 countries in Sharm El-Sheikh on Saturday and will last until 29 November. The president was keen to stress the Egyptian government and people's firm commitment to the conservation of biodiversity and to be present as Egypt, represented by Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad, assumed the chair of the conference for the next two years. “I welcome you to Sharm El-Sheikh,” the president began, “the city of peace which, some days ago, hosted the World Youth Forum which was attended by more than 5,000 young people from 160 countries in order to discuss the most important and vital issues of concern to youth, one of which is the environment.” In this context, he underscored the role that youth have to play in critical environmental issues, such as the need to conserve biodiversity, a resource that is a basic component of sustainable development, and the need to safeguard the right of future generations to enjoy their country's national resources. The president addressed his second message to the people of the world to whom he offered a glimpse of the value that ancient Egyptian civilisation attached to the environment and nature. Ancient Egyptian civilisation is a model for environmental conversation. It was a civilisation that flourished for thousands of years thanks to the natural resources that served as the basis for its progress in many fields. Thirdly, Al-Sisi defined a course for attaining sustainable development and social justice. Care for the environment is one of the dimensions of this course. In fact, he said, the Egyptian Constitution “lays a strong foundation for the conservation and proper utilisation of the natural resources of the country and for the protection of its seas, beaches, lakes, waterways, natural reserves and the Nile River, and emphasises the sound use of natural resources, the conservation of plant, animal and fish wealth, and the protection of any of these that risk extinction or are endangered.” Such remarks better enable us to appreciate how Egypt's success in organising this major biodiversity conference works towards augmenting the part Egypt plays in formulating the decisions emerging from the Convention on Biodiversity (CoB) and strengthening Egypt's pioneering role in this domain internationally. The choice of Sharm El-Sheikh as a venue for the conference both confirms how safe Egypt is and helps attract tourism. Moreover, not only does it profile Egypt's efforts in environmental and biodiversity conservation at home, it also throws into relief the considerable attention that Egypt dedicates to sustained development at the global level, to the incorporation of biodiversity concepts into the various developmental sectors, and to opening opportunities for channelling more investments into biodiversity and innovative solutions for its conservation. In his speech, the president observed that despite intensive efforts since the CoB was adopted in 1992, these efforts have not yet managed to mobilise the international community behind an effective drive to curb the continual deterioration in biodiversity and to attain a reasonable level of sustainable natural resource management. The reason for this, he said, is our inability to sufficiently assimilate biodiversity conservation into our activities. Earth's biological resources are crucial to human social and economic development and there is increasing recognition that biodiversity is of huge global value for present and future generations. The president, therefore, cautioned against any laxness in confronting the threats to biodiversity and different ecosystems, especially in light of the additional detrimental effects of climate change. As he pointed out, we are facing the worst threats to humankind in the modern era. Scientific studies show that human societies annually consume more than 30 per cent of the resources produced by our planet's ecosystems. The UN secretary general's report on the implementation of the sustainable development targets for 2018 contains disturbing data indicative of a marked deterioration in ecosystems, especially forests, and the annihilation of large numbers of living organisms. At the same time, there has been a 21 per cent decline in the amount of official developmental aid allocated to biodiversity since 2015. This outlook was collectively adopted in 2015 in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which includes environmental targets and pledges to strengthen multilateral international cooperation to attain them. Following through on this outlook, President Al-Sisi told participants that Egypt has decided to launch an initiative consistent with the aim of incorporating biodiversity principles in the energy, mining, infrastructure, industry and health sectors. The initiative aims to enhance harmony between the three Rio de Janeiro conventions on climate change, desertification and biodiversity and to contribute to the formulation of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the loss of biodiversity, the detrimental effects of climate change and soil degradation. Towards these ends, it seeks to augment cooperation and integration between partners and stakeholders in conservation efforts, such as civil society and private sector agencies, to stimulate a larger number of technical and financial pledges, and to generate partnerships with the funding mechanisms for the three Rio conventions. The hope now is that the president's words and the activities and outputs of the conference receive full backing and support in the coming phase. Egypt, for its part, is determined to work with all parties in order to ensure the success of the conference and to promote the realisation of its aims. Foremost among these aims are to raise awareness on the question of biodiversity, the threats it faces and the severe repercussions from its continued deterioration, and to translate commitments on the part of all concerned parties into concrete policies to be applied and carried out in diverse fields of human activity.
