It is Necessary to Translate Global Initiatives into Actions that Help Africa Achieving Climate & Development Goals
Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that the shared global goals of poverty reduction and addressing climate change should not be compromised.
This came during his participation in a session on “Climate, Poverty and Finance: The Tole of the Private Sector” within the events of COP28 in Dubai, attended by Dr. Susanna Gable, Deputy Director of Gates Foundation for Development Policy and Finance, and Dr. Vera Songwe, Co-Chair of the High-Level Expert Panel on Climate Finance.
Mohieldin said that MDBs must help investing in humans, health, education and creating jobs, as well as supporting the digital transformation of infrastructure and building climate resilience.
Mohieldin stated that MDBs play main role in encouraging private sector to scale up its participation in climate and development programs through de-risking financing and investing in climate and development projects.
“Developing countries should be a part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this requires from MDBs to help providing not only funds but also technical assistance to climate and development programs in these countries.” Mohieldin added.
He noted the need for reforming MDBs and increasing their capital so that they can help developing countries to achieve SDGs, saying that bridging climate finance gap in developing countries requires mobilizing $300 billion annually from IFIs and MDBs.
The climate champion said that they are many fields of cooperation and partnership between developing countries and MDBs in a way that help them achieving SDGs, including helping developing countries to develop new industrial policies that go in line with green transition.
In a session entitled “From Assets to Flows: Unlocking climate finance for African sustainable economic growth projects”, Mohieldin said that RPCP initiative is a model of partnership and collective action that aims to finance and implement the resulted projects that help achieving climate and development goals.
He said that the African Network of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ Africa) is working on the implementation of projects resulting from RPCP, as well as working to activate the debt swap mechanism, and support the African Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI).
Mohieldin stressed the need to agree on specific ESG to ensure the commitment of all actors and achieve positive results for collective action.
The climate champion called for translating global initiatives into actions that help Africa achieve SDGs, including climate goals.
