Mohieldin: COP27 Focused on Actual Implementation of Climate Action with Giving Climate Finance Significant Attention

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh was concerned not only with ways to mobilize funds for climate action, but also with finding projects to which funds could be directed to implement climate action on the ground.

Mohieldin added, during his participation in LSEG webinar entitled “What to Expect from COP28”, that COP27 gave climate finance significant attention, as it discussed ways to reform IFIs and MDBs to enhance their role in financing climate action, reducing the risks of financing and investing in climate and development projects in developing countries, and helping these countries to develop stimulating policies and regulatory frameworks that encourage private sector and corporates to participate in financing and implementing climate action. 

Mohieldin explained that in addition to its interest in ways to mobilize adequate and fair finance for climate action, the conference was also interested in finding investable, bankable and implementable climate and development projects at the regional and local levels through the Regional Platforms for Climate Projects launched by the Egyptian presidency of the conference in cooperation with the UN regional commissions and HLCs, and the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects (NISGP) presented by Egypt during the conference as a model for localizing climate and development action through projects based mainly on sustainability and advanced technology.

He stated that COP27 focused on activating innovative finance mechanisms and debt swaps for investment in nature and climate, it also focused on the importance of establishing carbon markets in developing countries to help them finance their climate and development action, pointing in this regard to the launch of the African Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) during the conference, which witnessed a great expansion and momentum during the past months.

Mohieldin noted the role he played as a facilitator of the second replenishment process of the Green Climate Fund during the last period, which witnessed an increase in the number of countries contributing to the financing of the fund despite the economic challenges witnessed by the world. He also referred to the work and coordination with the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which was launched during COP26, to enhance the regional dimension of climate action through the launch of the GFANZ Africa Network, and partnerships with regional financing institutions such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) with the aim of contributing to financing climate projects in Africa.

With regard to COP28, Mohieldin explained that the UAE Presidency of the conference focuses on accelerating the just energy transition to achieve the agreed emission reduction targets for 2030. The conference is also concerned with placing nature and people at the heart of climate action by promoting investments in nature and biodiversity projects as well as investment in human capital and capacity building.

He added that Dubai conference seeks to achieve inclusiveness by involving all relevant actors and sectors in planning and implementing climate action. The conference also pays attention to climate finance by stressing the need to fulfill financial commitments and pledges, and the necessity to strengthen the role of private sector and philanthropies in financing and implementing climate action.

He said that the conference will witness, within its outcomes, the announcement of the results of the GST, which will help all actors to identify what has been achieved and what is needed to focus on during the coming period, explaining that the world must race time to reduce carbon emissions by half by 2030 through implementing just energy transition, which includes phasing out dirty energy resources such as coal, oil and gas, and investing in renewables, taking into account the socioeconomic impact of this process.

Mohieldin stated that implementing climate action in developing countries requires mobilizing $2.4 trillion a year, of which $1.4 trillion is from domestic funding resources, $500 billion from private sector, $300 billion from MDBs, and about $200 billion from concessional financing.

He explained that the above emphasizes the important role of private sector and corporates in financing and implementing climate action, with the need to develop ESG criteria to prevent greenwashing, guided by the recommendations of the relevant UN and international reports to ensure transparency and disclosure, as well as the need to guide SMEs with regard to their environmental and climate performance.