The Earth is Exclaiming and the World Leaders are Responding Back...

By ICOM Group

Climate Change had been one of the main concerns of world leaders for decades, believing that the less we do to address climate change, the more regulations we will have in the future. It’s a storm that’s being silently prepared, causing new and threatening circumstances that all-earth creatures face daily. Since 1906, the planet is warming, from the North Pole to the South Pole and this is not the only disaster we’re facing but also the presence of extreme weather events, shifting wildlife populations and habitats and rising seas.

Between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people, more than 40% of the world’s population, live in places and in situations that are highly vulnerable to climate change.

Those billions of people receive negative impacts of natural disasters, especially for their public health. As per the “Global Climate Change - NASA” The global average surface temperature has increased by more than 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the arctic sea ice extent had a 13% decrease per decade, and the sea level raised 4 inches since 1993. The numbers are in a viral increase causing tons of impacts that are unavoidable anymore.

African This year's international gathering aims to establish legally binding commitments for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as adaptation and climate finance. region. The COP27 is committed to supporting an inclusive, transparent and party-driven process to ensure timely and adequate action, willing to have an ambitious transformation that may serve the climate change disaster and lessen its impact. In this year’s November, Sharm Elsheikh will witness this outstanding gathering, with a view to building on previous successes and paving the way for future resolutions and solutions and taking urgent actions to address the climate crisis and to strengthen the implementation of response for a resilient planet. It is a golden opportunity for all stakeholders to rise to the occasion and tackle effectively the global challenge of climate change.

The Egyptian Government recognizes the huge responsibility of organizing a successful 2022 UN climate conference (COP27)] Conference,

said Dr. Samir Tantawy, a climate change expert at the United Nations Development Program.

This year's international gathering aims to establish legally binding commitments for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as adaptation and climate finance. This chance is created to move from the negotiations and planning phase to an implementation one seeking to accelerate the global climate action, creating a work program for mitigation, enhancing global action on Adaptation, making significant progress on the crucial issue of climate finance and finally facilitating agreements and negations for wider collaborations. All of that shall happen for the African Continent in particular and developing countries in general.

Egypt had been taking viral steps towards solving climate change through other initiatives, it launched the “Live Green Initiative”, also setting up a parallel action plan through cooperation protocols with “Egypt’s Orthodox Church” and “Al-Azhar Institution” to participate in raising awareness of climate change impacts. As well as preserving marine life at COP 27 to link climate change and biological diversity. And one of the most important steps is that Egypt signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the “Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency” (EEAA), “the Industrial Modernization Center” (IMC) and the “Association for a sustainable quality of living” (Estidama) to give an award on fight the impacts of climate change in Africa.

Egypt launched an initiative to get rid of single-use plastic bags 3 years ago, and the state aims to reduce the use of plastic bags from 700 to 50 plastic bags per capita annually by 2025,

said Ali Abu Sena CEO of Egypt’s Environmental Affairs Agency.

And as a leading business provider through consecutive 24+ years, ICOM Group totally supports COP27 and the whole region and looking forward to a changing point due to this meet-up, giving all the trust in the leaders working on this event and wishing for a successful version. On another hand, ICOM Group had made a shift in its strategy as a response to the environment and the climate change crisis. For the sake of a better environment, ICOM since 2020 had an 80% increase in its hybrid templates and an average of 40% in its virtual ones!

Running an event online is undeniably greener and more sustainable than any in a physical venue, the environmental benefits of hosting online events are extremely effective as only business events generate more than $1.07 trillion in waste globally. In addition to applying the virtual strategy to ICOM meetings, almost 95% of the internal and external meetings happen in a virtual template as it’s an extremely effective way to lessen food waste, paper and CO2 too! As based on

ZDNet innovation; Two people spending an hour on an online meeting will generate around 0.0037kg of CO2, which is the equivalent of driving only 0.01 miles. Furthermore; to avoid the greenhouse gases released from plastics exposed to heat and reduce the energy used to manufacture and as we do generate tons of bags annually, we’ve decided this year to recycle the conference bags. We’ve created “A bag for each student” initiative, jointly with Rotary. We believe that we need to give back to the community and the world as a whole, so we donated 1K+ bags for less fortunate students, not only as a CSR activity but also as an activity to recycle our bags rather than turning them into a source of greenhouse gases that eventually will affect the ozone layer.

A further step we’ve taken this year to support the climate change obstacle was in CardioAlex.22, the largest and most important educational conference specialized in the cardiology field for 20+ years that aims at gathering Cardiologists. We’ve moved most of the procedures and information needed into

an online version created generic designs for easier recycling and raised awareness about being an environment friend to more than 6k attendees. As well as creating hundreds of eco-friendly conference bags to eliminate the need for single-use plastic bags that have proven to harm the environment. And in parallel with COP27, ICOM Group is preparing a fully integrated online awareness campaign, to increase the knowledge about eco-friendly events in the whole region.

We have a responsibility towards mother nature, we’re obliged to save the planet by changing our perspectives, our attitudes, updating our strategies and adapting to the new shapes of business,

said Dr Ahmed El Shal ICOM Group Chairman

Summing up, from a global perspective, the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are impacting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Rising global average temperature and rapid global warming are causing alarming consequences for human beings and all other forms of life on earth. All of these changes are emerging as humans continue to add heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and continue in the reckless attitude some are having. We all need to ride on the same boat and fight the climate change disaster as the future will be either green or unfortunately, there will not be one.