Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that the projects that resulted from Africa Regional Forum that have been held within the Five Regional Roundtables Initiative, and the Africa Carbon Market Initiative (ACMI) that has been launched during COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, represent promising opportunities of financing and investment in climate and development action in Africa.
This came during his co-chairing with Dr. Mohamed Farid, Chairman of the The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) and member of the Board of Directors of the African Securities Exchanges Association, for the first meeting of the “GFANZ Africa” network advisory board for this year, with the participation of Nezha Hayat, Chair of Morocco Capital Markets Authority, Hussein Abaza, CEO of CIB, Arunma Oteh, Chairwoman of Royal African Society, Leila Fourie, CEO of South Bridge Investments.
Mohieldin clarified that the Five Regional Roundtables Initiative, launched last summer by Egypt in collaboration with UN regional economic commissions and HLCs, aimed to enhance regional aspect of climate action through finding bankable, investable and applicable projects, explaining that the African forum resulted in a number of projects that cover all aspects of climate action and only need suitable funding to get implemented on the ground.
He stressed that African countries keen to activate innovative financing tools in order to mobilize sufficient funds for implementing their visions for climate and development action. He referred, in this context, to the Africa Carbon Market Initiative that has been launched during COP27 with the aim of the optimal usage of the continent’s resources to finance and implement climate and sustainable development projects.
Mohieldin explained that the initiative represents a great opportunity to invest in climate and development action, especially that the initiative enjoys the support of African governments, the interest of regional and international financing institutions, and the active participation of the private sector, adding that there are great prospects for expanding the initiative, whether in terms of the number of participating countries, its capital, or the job opportunities it provides to African citizens.
GFANZ launched during COP26 in Glasgow, and succeeded in bringing together more than five hundred companies and institutions around the world with a capital exceeding $130 trillion, with the aim of accelerating the transition towards a decarbonized economy and contributing to achieving the goal of 1.5 degrees of global warming.
