COP27 Launches Agenda to Help Climate Vulnerable Communities

The agenda includes global 2030 targets related to transitioning to climate-resilient agriculture, protecting critical ecosystems, and installing early warning systems.

The presidency of the ongoing UN climate conference launched an agenda to "enhance resilience for 4 billion people living in the most climate vulnerable communities by 2030."

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The Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda was announced by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry during a speech at a roundtable held in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, on the sidelines of the 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Shoukry, also the COP27 president, said the agenda is a plan that offers solutions to the challenges of climate finance and pledge implementation.

The COP27 presidency said the agenda outlined 30 adaptation outcomes, each of which offered solutions that could be adopted at a local level to adapt to climate change.

Collectively, these outcomes represent "the first comprehensive global plan to rally both state and non-state actors behind a shared set of adaptation actions that are required by the end of this decade across five impact systems: food and agriculture, water and nature, coasts and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructure, and including enabling solutions for planning and finance," it added.

The agenda includes global 2030 targets related to transitioning to climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, protecting and restoring critical ecosystems, installing smart and early warning systems that could benefit around 3 billion people across the world, investment to protect mangroves, and expanding people's access to clean cooking, among others. 

On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ratified his optimism for collective action by saying that despite the worsening climate crisis, he remains hopeful "because of the young people who have been relentless in holding decision-makers to account."