Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Mohieldin: Sharing knowledge, filling finance gaps "essential for adaptive food, agriculture systems"


COP27 is held in Sharm El Sheikh

Sat 12 Nov 2022 | 08:29 PM
Dr. Mohieldin
Dr. Mohieldin
Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin

Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that transitioning to a food and agriculture systems that are more adaptive to climate change requires sharing knowledge and filling finance gaps.

Mohieldin explained, during his participation in "Marrakesh Partnership Implementation Lab- Resilient & Adaptive Food Systems" session in COP27, that achieving resilience of food and agriculture sector faces many challenges, including shortage of finance and the resulting lack of scientific research, beside the need for behavior change across all related parties.

Mohieldin stated that Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda that have been launched in COP27 confirms the necessity of providing technical assistance and sufficient finance for food and agriculture sector, saying that these requirements are currently under discussions.

He praised the African Carbon Markets initiative that will help filling the finance gap in food and agriculture sector, highlighting the importance of NDBs and private sector role in this field, beside the the contribution of public budgets of states.

"It's important to spread the criteria of soft grants and loans adopted by IDA, which allow long-term repayment periods and low interest rates." Mohieldin said, calling for expanding the range of countries that benefit from these grants to include middle income countries beside the low income ones.

In this context, Mohieldin said that the Five Regional Roundtables initiative resulted in a number of promising food and agriculture projects, adding that they are investable and applicable.