President-elect Bongbong Marcos has been invited to attend the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference’s 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to be held in Egypt from 6 to 18 November.,Marcos’s office said the incoming Philippine leader is “seriously considering” the invitation conveyed to him by Egypt Ambassador Ahmed Shehabeldin Ibrahim during his courtesy call on Monday.,“Today I had the pleasure to meet his Excellency, President-Elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and I submitted to him an official congratulations from the Egyptian President, his Excellency Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil El – Sisi… I also took this opportunity to extend the invitation of his Excellency… to take part in November COP27,” Shehabeldin said in a press briefing at Marcos’s headquarters in Mandaluyong City.,“This topic, we talked about how the international community responds to the challenges of climate change. We may be different in geography, climate, and nature. However, we share the main concerns.”,Shehabeldin said while Marcos did not give his word about attending the event, he said he was told that the latter will “work hard” in order to do so.,“He will work hard. He will consider it hard to be there because he already visited the chargés d’affaires but it was a private visit before but he would like to be there,” he disclosed.,Marcos’s office said he will attend the conference, where delegates are expected to discuss systems to address the climate change crisis, “if his schedule would allow it.”,Shehabeldin further told the press that Egypt is also keen on strengthening relations with the Philippines by developing other areas of cooperation between the two countries, such as agriculture, tourism, and climate change response., ,Russia,Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador Marat Pavlov, in a separate courtesy call on Monday, assured Marcos that Russia is willing to extend assistance to the Philippines with its energy resources amid the spike in oil prices due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.,“It is a sovereign period, we are ready to cooperate with the Filipino side, and to extend our helping hands, to satisfy the needs in the sources of energy,” he told reporters.,Oil and gas prices have surged over Russian energy supplies and soaring inflation brought by the Russian-Ukraine war that started in February of this year.,Pavlov also conveyed Russia’s willingness to expand areas of cooperation with the Philippines.,For his part, Marcos said the Philippines will cooperate with the Russian Federation but he will maintain his independent policy in connection with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine., ,ADB assures BBM of support,In a related development, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masatsugu Asakawa also paid a courtesy call to Marcos and assured him of the ADB’s strong commitment to supporting his incoming administration’s development priorities.,Asakawa said ADB will explore opportunities with the Marcos administration’s priorities on “climate change action to support a resilient and green economic recovery, and climate-smart transportation.”,The development bank would also help the incoming administration through “continuing investments in education, vocational skills training, employment programs, health promotion, and social protection.”,Asakawa also invited Marcos to be the guest of honor at the ADB’s 55th Annual Meeting in September.,Aside from the envoys from Russia and Egypt, Ambassadors Grete Sillasen of Denmark, and Ilan Fluss of Israel, also held separate courtesy calls on the same day.,Sillasen said her discussion with Marcos “focused to a high degree” on sustainable use of energy and how Denmark managed to “double” its gross domestic product “without increasing” their energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.,“The greenest, cheapest, and cleanest energy is one that we do not use and this was what the President-elect and I talked much about,” she said.,“In my country, in particular, we don’t have nuclear energy and there was a decision not to use it, but everything is up for reevaluation, so it could be one element. We all need a varied mix so we don’t rely on one thing only.”