Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt, UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and Facilitator of the Second Replenishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF-2), announced that GCF-2 initially succeeded in mobilizing $9.32 billion, with some countries pledging to make their contributions over the coming period.
This came during his chairmanship of “The Pledging Session for Interested Contributors” within the events of the High Level Pledging Conference for GCF’s Second Replenishment that held in Bonn, Germany, with the participation of Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, Selwin Hart, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Climate Action and Just Transition, Ambassador Wael Ahmed Kamal Aboul-Magd, Special Representative of COP27 President who delivered remarks on behalf of Ambassador Sameh Shoukry, COP27 President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt.
The conference also attended by Svenja Schulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Mafalda Duarte, Executive Director of Green Climate Fund, Adnan Amin, Chief Executive Officer of COP28, Simon Stiell, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, and a number of ministers and representatives of governments and countries contributing to GCF-2.
Mohieldin stressed the importance of the contributions pledged by countries to finance climate projects in developing countries and regions most affected by climate change, explaining that the GCF will work on turning these contributions into actual investment with a tangible effect.
Mohieldin praised the early signing of Austria, Germany and Monaco of their financial pledges to GCF-2. He said that the early signing of the pledges will help the Fund accelerate the pace of climate action, explaining that the door is open for all countries to contribute to the Fund's resources at any time during its next cycle 2024 / 2027.
He underlined the importance of the collective work and cooperation shown by the GCF and contributors, saying that beneficiaries trust in the Fund and the contributors to provide them with financial and technical support to enable them to achieve their climate goals.
Mohieldin stated that Climate finance is inefficient, insufficient, and unfair, adding that closing the wide finance gap to tackle the climate emergency urges speed and affordability of finance through concessional finance, beside channeling more funds to adaptation projects in the most vulnerable communities and activating de-risking tools.
“The replenishment is not a moment that is solely focused on improving GCF financial position and hence its capacity of undertaking projects, but more importantly it is a moment of revisiting its entire model of operation, which as it stands involves some areas of improvement, especially when it comes to the simplification of the process, speed and efficiency of access to funds, and local private sector engagement.” Mohieldin said.
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