Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took part on Tuesday in the COP27 sessions at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt and said contacts with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi remain close.
On the sidelines of the conference he met with the US Special Presidential Envoy on Climate John Kerry and took part in a high-level event held on Egypt and Cyprus' initiative on "Coordinating Climate Change Actions in the Eastern Mediterranean & Middle East" and co-chaired a round table on secure access to water.
According to sources, during his meeting with Kerry they discussed Greek-US cooperation against climate change and achieving the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Greek premier briefed Kerry on preparations for the "Our Ocean Conference" to be held in 2024 in Greece, as well as Greece's support for the "Green Shipping Challenge" of the USA and Norway.
Mitsotakis welcomed US initiatives for the reduction of shipping's energy footprint, noting the crucial role of Greek shipping, the largest in the world, to successfully meet goals for sustainable solutions in the sector.
Earlier, while addressing the Cyprus-Egypt event also attended by the President of Egypt and host of the conference Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Cyprus President Nikos Anastasiades, Mitsotakis underlined the importance of the regional cooperation and coordination against climate change in the Eastern Mediterranean, with a focus on electricity interconnections and management of natural disasters.
"It is necessary to further cooperate as regards energy interconnection. It is an issue of high importance for us. Of course, we are examining with President El-Sisi the possibility of developing a new, significant interconnection between Egypt and Greece in order to be able to transfer cheap energy from renewable energy sources, which will be produced in this part of the world, not only to Greece but also to other European markets that seek cheaper energy generated from RES," Mitsotakis said.
Referring to the challenges created by climate change in the fields of civil protection, Mitsotakis pointed out the need to expand cooperation between states.
"We all are faced with disastrous weather phenomena. Some of us are, more often, faced with wildfires, other may have more flash floods and it is relatively easy and effective to cooperate and share resources in the sector of civil protection".
In the context of COP27, Mitsotakis co-chaired with the President of Senegal and chair of the African Union Machy Sall, a high-level roundtable discussion on secure and unobstructed access to water.
Τhe Greek prime minister underlined that limited access to clean water and drought are directly linked with climate change and affect a large number of the world's population.
He said that droughts constitute a multilateral challenge that contributes to migration flows and population movements, underlining the need for collaboration and common initiatives for the effective management of the water resources.
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