The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) to the African Union, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, met with Ambassador Mohamed Nasr, the Director of the Climate, Environment and Sustainable Development Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt and Egypt CoP27 Chief Negotiator, visiting Addis in advance of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (17-18 August 2023). The meeting was held on 16 August.

The SRSG and the Ambassador discussed preparations for the Ministerial Conference and preparations for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi on 4-6 September 2023, as well as the lead up to CoP28 in Dubai (30 November-12 December 2023) and, there with, priorities and opportunities for enhanced African coordination. In this context the SRSG and the Ambassador exchanged views on climate finance and progress in the implementation of the CoP27 Loss and Compensation Fund and the UN Secretary-General’s “Early Warning for All” initiative. Reflecting on financing strategies for a just transition, the SRSG and the Ambassador also discussed the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) “green” tariffs on imports, with adverse implications for African exports, and reflected on the prospects for an equitable distribution of the burdens and opportunities of climate adaptation, including a “fair share” of benefits accruing to African States from African resources, in the development of the green economy and for the sustainable development of Africa. Likewise, the SRSG and the Ambassador discussed the prospects for enhanced technology transfers and flexible financial arrangements, including grants and concessionary finance for adaptation, from developed state signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), while both the SRSG and the Ambassador committed to ensuring that gains achieved at CoP27 would be enhanced at CoP28. The UN SRSG commended Ambassador Nasr on his leadership, while congratulating Egypt on its success in steering the UNFCCC through CoP27, and on.