Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that just energy transition requires more efforts and cooperation among all actors to mobilize the necessary financing and implement technological solutions.
This came during his participation in a webinar for launching the Breakthrough Agenda Report 2023, hosted by IEA, IRENA, UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and Marrakech Partnership in collaboration with OECD, and attended by Fatih Birol, Executive Director at IEA, and Francesco La Camera, Director-General of IRENA.
Mohieldin noted that the second report of the Breakthrough Agenda -launched during COP26 in Glasgow- reported progress in the implementing energy sector transition as a result of significant cooperation between governmental and non-governmental parties and relevant international organizations, but at the same time, the report showed the need to increase the work and accelerate the pace of implementation by activating technological solutions and scaling investments in renewables.
He added that the report included solutions to achieve a just energy transition in a number of sectors, underlining the need of work and cooperation between different actors and holding more PPPs to implement these solutions, with the necessity of including them in NDCs at the country level.
Mohieddin praised the determination of African countries demonstrated during ACS in Nairobi to achieve green growth and cooperate with energy organizations and development finance institutions to provide the financing and technology necessary to achieve this growth.
Mohieddin also praised number of effective international initiatives that relate to financing and implementing climate action as a whole, including the energy sector transition, foremost of which is the Bridgetown initiative, stressing the importance of speeding the implementation of these initiatives in order to achieve climate goals, including decarbonization.
The climate champion said that there is a close link and common areas of action between the Breakthrough Agenda and Sharm El Sheikh Adaptation Agenda launched during COP27 by the Egyptian presidency of the conference and HLCs, explaining that the implementation of the two agendas at the needed pace requires intensifying cooperation between various parties, including governments, private sector, regional and international organizations and development finance institutions.
Mohieldin stressed that supporting the implementation of the Breakthrough Agenda, or the climate action in general, entails mobilizing finance by focusing on partnerships and cooperation between different parties while strengthening action at the regional and local levels, promoting investment in studies, research and technologies related to climate action and sharing knowledge, as well as reformulating policies governing climate action that must enhance cooperation and take into account the interests of all countries, with the private sector and companies adopting clear and specific standards for ESG.
