The COP27, the UN climate summit in Egypt, started on 5 November. Damage from climate change is an official topic of conversation for the first time. Spain takes a very prominent role and announces an international alliance against extreme drought.
Speaking at the opening of the current climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, former UN Climate Conference President Alok Sharma asked all those present: “How many more wake-up calls does the world need?”. By this he referred to various disasters of recent years, the extreme heat and additional drought. Furthermore, he gave the recent floods in Pakistan as one of the examples of extreme weather of recent times.
Spain takes pride of place at UN climate summit
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez took on an important role in the early days of the summit. Moreover, Sánchez announced some investments from Spain to tackle the damaging effects of climate change. He asked for maximum commitment from politicians. As terrible as he believes the war in Ukraine is, Pedro Sánchez is calling on governments not to use it as an excuse for failing to meet promised targets.
Spain launches international alliance against drought
One of the measures announced by Sánchez is the launch of an international alliance against extreme drought. The Spanish government announced an initial investment of several million to better cope with the drought. The alliance can rightly be called ‘international’ because almost thirty countries, including the US and China, have now joined. The countries within this alliance share mutual knowledge and jointly take measures to adapt to the extreme weather in order to cope with long periods of drought.
According to the UN, Spain is quite successful in this alliance because the Spanish delegation has managed to increase the number of participating countries from 18 to 29 since the start of COP27. It is also remarkable that Spain has succeeded in getting the US and China into the same alliance. The Spanish Prime Minister concluded his speech with the words: “An ambitious agenda is our response to ignorance and indifference, because our lives literally depend on it.”
Spain as a global hub for sustainable fuels
In addition to Sánchez’s speech, he also took part in several roundtable discussions on the transition of countries that want to decarbonize their economies. Sánchez was asked to tell how the closing of coal mines in Spain is going. The prime minister spoke about Cepsa’s recent initiative to make aircraft fuel greener.
According to US envoy John Kerry and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Spain can play an even greater role in developing sustainable fuels, precisely because of its geographical location, sustainability potential and know-how. of the industry.
