The experts urged world leaders to raise Abdel-Fattah’s case with the Egyptian government. France President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz addressed the activist’s imprisonment in their talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi earlier this week.
Abdel-Fattah is serving a five-year term on charges of spreading false news. The activist has spent much of the past decade in prison on what rights groups say are politically motivated charges.
The U.N.-appointed experts also called on the Egyptian government to review the cases of other jailed activists on similar charges.
Dozens of environmental activists have gathered inside the U.N. climate conference venue, protesting against the continued global investment in fossil fuels.
The protesters called for negotiators at the conference, known as COP27, particularly those from the world’s largest emitters to pay more to address the impacts of climate change in poorer countries in Africa.
Nigerian Activist Lucky Abeng, from the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance, said they would continue pressure world leaders to do more for countries who “contribute nothing or less in changing the climate.”
Africa is responsible for just 4% of global emissions despite making up 17% of the world’s opulation, but is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change.
“We will continue to make our voices loud,” Abeng said. “We will not be intimidated.”
— Carbon dioxide emissions rising globally, but drop in China
— UN to seek out methane emitters with data from space
— African nations push for funding to adapt to climate change
— In Egypt, host of COP27, a small step toward green energy
Dozens of countries including the United States, India, Australia, Kenya, and the European Commission have launched a 12-month plan to boost technologies that would help tackle global warming.
The so-called Breakthrough Agenda backed by countries representing over half the world’s economy was announced Friday on the sidelines of the U.N. climate talks in Egypt.
It covers 25 areas in which the countries plan to accelerate the uptake of low-carbon technologies for power generation, road transport, agriculture, and steel and hydrogen production.
Scientists say that in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celesius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, the world economy needs to decarbonize by 2050, meaning only as much greenhouse gas should be released as can be absorbed by natural or artificial means.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said in a statement that the plan would bring governments together to “scale critical technologies and create new markets.”
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