Mohieldin: 2nd Africa Regional Forum Aims to Mobilize Required Funds for Climate and Development Projects

Climate finance is a development finance and not a substitute for it, as climate projects contribute to creating jobs and reducing poverty

Dr.Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that the second edition of Africa Regional Forum aims to mobilize the necessary funding and investments to start implementing the climate projects reached at the first edition of the forum.

This came during his participation in a preparatory meeting entitled “Toward the African Regional Forum & COP28: Unlocking climate finance flows to African projects through finnovation” that took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The meeting builds up to the 2nd Annual Africa Regional Forum that will take place in Kenya next September within the Five Regional Forums Initiative organized by the UN Regional Commissions, Egypt and UAE presidencies of COP27 and COP28 and the UN Climate Change High Level Champions.

Mohieldin stressed that the main goal of the Five Regional Forums is to find implementable climate projects that MDBs, IFIs and investors can effectively participate in financing them.

He explained that many African countries already suffer from debt problems, which necessarily requires activating other finance solutions for climate and development action in Africa, benefiting from debt reduction tools and debt swaps for investment in nature and climate, and activating Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) that launched during COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh.

In this context, Mohieldin confirmed that climate finance is a development finance and not a substitute for it, as climate projects contribute to creating jobs and thus reducing poverty rates, as well as providing energy, managing water resources, enhancing aspects of life in urban cities and more things that all come under the umbrella of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), pointing out the need for developing countries to adopt a holistic approach that puts climate action in the broader framework of development action.

Abidjan meeting came on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum, leveraging the gathering of these important business leaders in Africa to propel more support for climate project pipelines.