COP27 is the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties. The annual conference brings together world leaders to accelerate action to reach the goals set out by the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP27 will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt 7-18 November, 2022.
Learn more about COP27 from the official COP27 website here.
As Egypt prepares to take over the COP27 presidency, UCU and other trade unions are calling for Egypt to end its repression of workers, trade unions and activists.
In Egypt the rights of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and protest are not guaranteed. The country is subject to a climate of repression, even with the use of force, and the criminalization of protests. Independent trade unions are severely hindered in the free exercise of freedom of trade union rights and the national law regulating the right to strike and trade union freedom.
UCU actively supported the ongoing campaign for justice for Giulio Regeni, the Cambridge PhD student who was murdered by the Egyptian security forces in Cairo while carrying out research with independent trade unions in 2016. As an affiliate of Egypt Solidarity, UCU fully supports the statement issued here Against climate change, against dictatorship: a message from Cairo | Egypt Solidarity (egyptsolidarityinitiative.org) and continues its commitment to affirm the right to social and climate justice, human and labour rights, full and quality employment, active and democratic participation.
UCU will not be sending any representatives to COP27 but will instead be doing all that we can in the lead up and during COP27 to advocate and campaign for climate justice for movements and activists in Egypt who share our values.