Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, confirmed that COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh has achieved great successes despite the ongoing permacrisis and difficult economic and geopolitical challenges that affect the whole world.
This came during his participation in a session on the results of the climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh COP27 organized by the Egyptian Embassy in Addis Ababa and the Egyptian Permanent Mission to the African Union in cooperation with the African Union Commission, with the participation of Ambassador Mohamed Gad, Ambassador of Egypt to Ethiopia and the African Union, Ambassador Mohamed Nasr, Director of the Department of Climate Change, Environment and Sustainable Development at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chief Negotiator of Egypt to COP27, Josepha Sacko, Commissioner of the African Union on Environment and Climate Change, Ephraim Shitima, Chief of the African Group of Negotiators, and Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, Head of UN Office to AU.
Mohieldin said that the success of the conference began with the launch of unprecedented initiatives to enhance the local and regional aspects of climate action to serve the international effort in this regard, explaining that the conference has made great progress in some areas of climate action, and achieved satisfactory progress in others, while maintained the goals of the Paris Agreement related to reducing emissions, which were confirmed during the COP26 in Glasgow despite the challenges facing achieving these goals.
Mohieldin explained that the Sharm el-Sheikh conference has made great progress with the launch of the Loss and Damage Fund, the mechanisms of which will be agreed upon by COP28 in the United Arab Emirates at the end of this year. The conference also witnessed the parties agree on the need to find innovative mechanisms for financing climate action to reduce depending on deb with the need to restructure the global finance system to allow fair, adequate and effective financing for various aspects of climate action in different countries and societies.
With regard to satisfactory results, Mohieldin said that the Sharm El-Sheikh conference witnessed the launch of the Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, which sets a clear vision of the areas of action on adaptation and their financing mechanisms in the sectors of food and agriculture, water and nature, coasts and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructure, explaining that the agenda highlighted the importance of the measures of adaptation to climate change for African countries in particular and developing countries in general, in addition to stressing the importance of a holistic approach in dealing with all dimensions of climate action and setting them within the framework of achieving the sustainable development goals as a whole.
The climate champion stated that the Sharm el-Sheikh conference witnessed unprecedented participation of youth and children and the appointment of a youth envoy by the Egyptian presidency of the conference for the first time. The conference also witnessed the announcement of the results of the five regional roundtables initiative launched by the Egyptian presidency of the conference in cooperation with the UN regional economic commissions and HLCs, which resulted in a large number of investable, bankable and implementable projects, while discussing the possibility of having some of these projects benefited from the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero Emissions (GFANZ).
Mohieldin highlighted the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects launched by the Egyptian government to localize climate and development action, the results of which were presented during the Sharm el-Sheikh conference and ways to implement initiatives similar to the Egyptian initiative in various countries have been discussed in order to enhance the local dimension of climate and development action.
Mohieldin said that the conference witnessed the activation of innovative financing mechanisms for climate action, agreeing on the importance of using debt reduction mechanisms and swaping debt for investment in nature and climate, as well as discussing mechanisms for transferring assets into financial flows to facilitate ways to finance climate action. The conference also witnessed the launch of the African Carbon Markets Initiative, which will enhance the capacity of African countries to finance their climate action.
He added that the conference witnessed the enhancing of the role of non-state actors in climate action, especially the private sector, and witnessed also the confirmation of the commitment of insurance institutions to provide insurance coverage in Africa against climate risks worth $14 billion in accordance with the Nairobi Declaration, beside releasing the report of the high-level group of experts with its ten recommendations to deal with standards and procedures to be followed on zero-neutrity pledges, address the risks of greenwashing, and regulate sustainable green economy financing markets.
Mohieldin stressed that the Sharm el-Sheikh conference represents a turning point in the path of COPs towards implementing climate action, and turning pledges into actual implementation on land, an approach that will be supported by the HLCs during future climate conferences, beside affirming the holistic approach in dealing with climate change, and linking climate action to development work as a whole.
He stated that the UN HLCs will work to promote the equitable transition of the energy sector to contribute to achieving emission reduction targets, and push towards equitable financing for climate action by considering the proposal to create a concessional financing system at a low interest rate and long-term grace and repayment periods, while extending the beneficiaries of this system to include middle-income countries as well as low-income countries.
Mohieldin added that the Climate Champions team will work to strengthen the role of the private sector and non-state actors both in implementing the Sharm el-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda and financing dealing with loss and damage caused by climate change.
Follow the latest news on Google News
