Sisi meets UN climate change official

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met Thursday with Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres.
Sisi underlined the importance Egypt is attaching to ongoing negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change out of its awareness of the size of climate challenges, presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said.
The negotiations are a real chance to boost the economies of developing countries, achieve sustainable development and eradicate poverty through attracting investments to different economic fields, the Egyptian leader said.
He pointed out to the natural resources available in developing countries, including Egypt, such as solar and wind energy but their projects and studies require funding.
Making renewable sources of energy available to African countries will help end the depletion of environmental resources, like forests, and therefore overcome desertification, Sisi told the UN official.
For her part, Figueres said she completely agrees with the Egyptian president, saying that climate change should not be addressed from an environmental perspective only but from an economic one as well.
Advanced countries have to help developing countries by reducing the cost of establishing renewable energy plants, especially solar ones, she said.
Egypt will have an effective role in the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which will take place in December in France, as it currently chairs the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change and the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, she added.