Parliamentary delegations from 60 countries concluded on Thursday activities of the eighth Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt’s South Sinai province.
They underscored the importance of supporting developing countries to protect the environment and promote green investment.
They also called for involving civil society representatives in climate legislation discussions.
The two-day event was held under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and in cooperation with the Egyptian House of Representatives and the IPU.
It focused on legislative, legal, and developmental approaches to climate change issues.
Egypt will host the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2022 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in November. World leaders and heads of state and governments are expected to attend the summit.
Egypt's Speaker of the House of Representatives Hanafi El Jebali said at the closing session that dialogue among the world’s youths has become essential to address the extraordinary challenges the globe currently suffers.
IPU President Duarte Pacheco called for taking advantage of the upcoming summit to protect the planet, in light of the growing concerns of famine and food insecurity, while working to achieve and activate the discussions of young parliamentarians on the climate change crisis.
President of the IPU Forum of Young Parliamentarians MP Sahar al-Bazar, for her part, warned that climate change is an emergency case and an imminent threat, while referring to the link between climate change and human rights.
She called on the young parliamentarians to use the various legislation tools to reduce the effects of climate change as a matter of existential challenge.
Tamar Chugoshvili, the parliamentary expert and first vice deputy speaker of Goergia’s parliament, reviewed during one of Thursday’s sessions a report on parliamentary work in the field of climate.
She pressed for providing tools that can evaluate parliamentary participation in an effective manner, so that participation is considered positive, especially in terms of support and communication with many other institutions.
She also called for establishing a general mechanism to advance efforts through the participation of ordinary individuals and introducing them to parliamentary activities and works through various means.
Chugoshvili underscored the need to “improve performance and establish evaluation mechanisms on climate action to maintain public participation, stressing that participation is not limited to parliamentarian figures.