Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda confirmed the important role of city leaders, local institutions, and agencies in financing and implementing climate action in its various aspects at the local level.
This came during his participation in a session entitled “Unlocking Finance for City-scale Transformation through Multi-level Governance” during the events of Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week held in Panama, with the participation of relevant officials from the countries of the region.
Mohieldin said bringing climate and development action back on track will not be carried out without the effective participation of city leaders and local actors in financing and implementing climate and development action through contributing to the mobilization of funds from domestic resources and developing tight and stimulating policies and institutional legislation for climate and development action at the local level.
He stated that working to bridge the climate finance gap depends mainly on the efforts of cities to mobilize finance from domestic resources, explaining that climate action in developing countries requires mobilizing about $2.5 trillion annually until 2030, of which $1.5 trillion must be mobilized from domestic resources.
He stressed that addressing the climate finance crisis should not exacerbate the debt crisis in many developing countries and emerging economies, or increase the burdens on the public budgets of these countries, pointing out the importance of enhancing the participation of private sector and philanthropies in financing and implementing climate action.
The climate champion underlined the important role of cities and local actors in financing and implementing climate adaptation activities, saying that COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh witnessed great momentum regarding the participation of cities in the Race To Resilience campaign, adding that the conference witnessed the issuance of Sharm El Sheikh Adaptation Agenda (SAA), which is a very important practical mechanism to achieve resilience for cities and enhance their ability to withstand climate shocks.
In this regard, he pointed out that cities benefit from the climate and development projects that resulted from the Five Regional Roundtables Initiative launched by the Egyptian Presidency of COP27 in cooperation with the UN regional economic commissions and HLCs, and joined by the UAE Presidency of COP28 in its second edition.
He also explained that the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects (NISGP) in Egypt represents a model for localizing climate and development action.
Mohieldin stressed the necessity that NDCs reflect the actual level of targeted climate action and the real volume of available and required finance, saying that the flowing finance into adaptation activities in Africa, for example, does not exceed $11 billion annually, while the NDCs and the reports of some relevant organizations indicate the need for five to ten times this figure annually to implement adaptation activities alone.
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