Climate activist John Kerry warned Monday that geopolitical tensions including floods, famine, pestilence, war and rumors of war must all be set to one side as the time has come for another “urgent” climate conference to seal the fate of the world.

Kerry appealed for everyone to focus on him and his climate call as the U.S. and Egypt on Monday launched a joint working group to prepare for the COP27 conference in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in November, AP reports.

The man chosen by U.S. President Joe Biden to be his Special Envoy for Climate said other world tensions, including coronavirus and the ongoing Ukraine crisis, “will not change the reality of what is happening every day with respect to our climate,” and called the issue an “international threat for all of us.”