Mohieldin Participates in HLC Session on Climate Resilience

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt, participated on Tuesday in the High-Level Champions session held on the sidelines of SB56 in Bonn.

The session tackled the recent updates on activities related to building resilience to the impacts of climate change. Themed ‘Actions After Impacts and Resilience’, the session highlighted the outcomes of Champions Team workshops held in May with a focus on enhancing action by NSAs on climate losses and damages.

In his speech, Dr. Mohieldin stressed the paramount importance of mobilizing investments required to adapt to the impacts of climate change coupled with facing the related losses and damages.

Dr. Mohieldin also emphasized the need to increase the efforts of non-state actors with the aim of addressing losses and damages and adequately meeting the needs of affected communities.

Mohieldin also elaborated that 2 workshops were held in May with the key aim of holding an open discussion on how to accelerate actions by non-State actors through sharing relevant best practices with the participation of 110 participants from 25 countries.

In a related context, he stressed the importance of not ignoring “non-economic losses” besides identifying capabilities already in communities when rebuilding. He also referred to transforming agriculture and food systems to new systems to withstand the potential losses and damages from slow-onset changes like sea-level rise and salinization, and impacts of prolonged drought and changes in precipitation. In the meantime, Mohieldin highlighted the importance of insurance, data, AI, research, and development.

Mohieldin cited the excellent examples in East Africa where NSAs from CSOs, the private sector (power of fintech for example), and regional governments have central roles. These actions by NSAs – if scaled – can provide practical examples of the actions and investments that are needed, and help build momentum and drive an ambition loop with states, he added.

In a related context, Mohieldin emphasized that this work is no substitute for action by States on this agenda. “It is complementary, and positively supportive to the actions States should address loss and damage,” he clarified.