Dr. Mohieldin in COP28: Fast Mobilizing of Just Climate Finance in Africa is Necessary

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, moderated a session entitled “ “Africa's Sustainable Future: Mobilizing Climate Finance at Scale” within the events of COP28 in Dubai.

While introducing the session, Mohieldin said that identifying climate and development finance gaps paves the way for finding solutions, stressing the need to adopt a holistic approach that considers climate action part of development action, and that climate finance solutions contribute to financing the various SDGs.

The session discussed debt, carbon markets and projects resulted from RPCP in Africa, and was attended by Dr. Mohamed Maait, Minister of Finance, Ambassador Mohamed Nasr, Chief Negotiator of the Egyptian Presidency of COP27, Vera Songoy, Co-Chair of the Independent High-Level Panel of Experts on Climate Finance, Mary Schapiro, Vice President of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), and a big number of ministers and officials of international and African organizations and alliances.

During his participation in the “Investing in the Future: Transforming Financing for the Paris Agreement and Development Goals” session, Mohieldin said that the launch of the Loss and Damage Fund during COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh and its activation during COP28 in Dubai, underlines the importance of correcting mitigation and adaptation tracks at the level of financing and implementation.

Mohieldin stressed the importance of accelerating climate action and setting clear time frames for implementing initiatives of financing and implementing climate activities.

The climate champion praised the UAE's launch of a fund to finance climate action, build capacity and provide technical assistance to developing countries. He also noted the success of the second replenishment process for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) after 29 countries announced contributions to the fund amounting to $12.4 billion.

In this context, Mohieldin referred to the Bangladesh platform for financing mitigation and adaptation activities launched in cooperation with the IMF, explaining that the platform is a model for partnerships and cooperation between governments, the private sector, IFIs and MDBs.

He said that some European and American industrial and trade policies limit the competitiveness of developing countries, but at the same time they represent opportunities for cooperation between developed and developing countries to provide technical assistance and decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors in developing countries.

The climate champion noted the importance of establishing carbon markets and activating the debt swap mechanism on a larger scale, which contributes to enhancing the ability of developing countries to finance their climate and development goals.