COP 27: statement by President Denis Sassou N’GUESSO

Mr. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,
Ladies and gentlemen heads of state and government,
Mr Secretary General of the United Nations,
Ladies and gentlemen;

I take this opportunity to reaffirm the firm will and determination of the Republic of Congo to actively participate in the global effort to combat climate change.
Without the slightest hesitation, I support the president-designate of this COP 27, which is undoubtedly one of the most decisive since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.
COP 27 must be a COP for action after so many announcements over the years and so many unkept promises. The time has come to take concrete action; our credibility is at stake.

Ladies and gentlemen, The necessary survival of humanity calls for respect, without delay, of the commitments made and the implementation of effective initiatives, linked to the preservation of the environment.
Faced with climate change, reforestation of the planet constitutes, without the slightest doubt, one of the most relevant saving solutions.
With a forest cover estimated at 220 million hectares, or approximately 6% of the planet's forest surface and 10% of global biodiversity, the Congo Basin constitutes the second dense and humid tropical forest region after the Amazon. Studies estimate it may be the last major terrestrial tropical carbon sink in the world, making these forests vital in the global fight against climate change.
The Congo Basin alone captures more than 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of three years of cumulative emissions from all of our countries.
It is for this reason that conserving and preserving our forests has become an emergency which commits us all to make a decisive political choice and to express our solidarity with the rest of humanity.
It should be remembered that the Republic of Congo very early on became aware of the absolute need to protect, restore and expand its forest cover.
For 40 years, our entire population has been invited to plant a tree as part of National Tree Day, celebrated in our country on November 6 each year.
It is this type of proactive action, combined with a rigorous forestry code, that has allowed us to maintain one of the lowest deforestation rates in the world.
This means that this COP opens on a symbolic date and yesterday, before leaving my country, I fulfilled with all the Congolese people the civic duty of planting a tree. This duty of universal scope reflects the high awareness of the population whose role is no longer to be determined in the fight against global warming.

In view of this salutary experience from the Republic of Congo and for a safer and fairer world in environmental and climatic terms, I launch, from the top of this rostrum, the solemn appeal for the establishment of a decade of afforestation which would force humanity to reverse the current course of destruction of our forests.
Much more than a solution, it is an imperative of reason, afforestation appearing as a real cry of the heart which calls upon us all.

Thank you.