Mohieldin Emphasizes on Women’s Pivotal Role in Climate Action

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that women play a key role in addressing climate change by effectively contributing to the implementation of various aspects and initiatives of climate action.

This came during his participation in “The Women-Waste-Climate Nexus Public Panel: Unlocking the potential of women entrepreneurs to combat the global waste crisis and accelerate the Race to Zero”, Hosted by the Legatum Center at MIT, the Royal Academy of Engineering, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, and ImpaXus, with the participation of Dr. Linda Godfrey, MANAGER of Circular Innovation South Africa and Circular Economy Specialist at CSIR, Delila Khaled, Founder and Manager of ImpaXus, Carlos Silva Filho, President of the International Solid Waste Association and Member of UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Zero Waste, and Dina Sherif, Executive Director of Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT.

Mohieldin stated that women have proven their ability to make achievements in different fields when they get fair spaces of participation, explaining that empowering women and providing them with the necessary capacities, skills and tools is one of the SDGs agreed upon by the international community.

He noted that at the level of climate action in general, and waste recycling in particular, women make significant contributions, saying that a number of projects that resulted from the Five Regional Roundtables Initiative, launched by Egypt presidency of COP27, UN regional economic commissions and HLCs, are enhancing women’s role in climate action. Women also submitted promising projects for the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects (NISGP) in Egypt, including three projects that won in the initiative's competition relate to recycling agricultural, electronic and other types of waste.

Mohieldin explained that waste has serious harm to the environment, climate and societies, stressing that Sharm El Sheikh Adaptation Agenda (SAA) can contribute significantly to achieving the goal of Zero Waste through the main areas of work included in the agenda, which rely on the participation of all parties and groups in its implementation, including women.

The climate champion stressed that time and finance constraints that are facing climate action in general, and women's contributions to this action in particular, can be overcome by scaling up the effective partnerships between public and private sectors, philanthropies and civil society organizations, and strengthening cooperation between all actors. He added that the challenges facing the international climate effort can be overcome by supporting regional and local initiatives and efforts that have proven their feasibility in different countries.

“Overcoming the challenges of climate action also requires providing sufficient and fair finance, investing in technological solutions, research and development, developing regulatory frameworks that stimulate climate action, strengthening monitoring and supervising systems to monitor the performance of different parties.” Mohieldin said, confirming the need to involve all relevant actors and groups -including women- in policymaking and decisions for climate action.