Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that COP27 will focus on the Agriculture and Food sector transition on scientific basis in order to curb climate change.
Mohieldin added, during his virtual participation in the Food Security Symposium held by World Food Programme and Ministry of International Cooperation, that creating agriculture and food system which is more resilient to the impacts of the climate change requires updated data bases, applying new technologies and scientific solutions, providing skills to all participants in implementing the transition process, beside pooling just and sufficient finances.
He stressed that transitioning at agriculture and food sector will not result in food security unless it happened in a frame of a holistic approach that balance between mitigation and adaptation measures, it also requires immediate shift to actual implementation through pragmatic steps taken by all actors, adding that Sharm El Sheikh conference prioritizes the holistic approach and actual implementation of climate and environmental action.
The climate champion referred to the importance of the regional dimension of the agriculture and food sector transition, and the joint work of the same region countries, especially that collective efforts proved their efficiency in making more effective results than solo work, he pointed also to the importance of localizing the transition process of this vital sector so that it involves all participants in the implementation including farmers and other local actors.
Mohieldin highlighted the necessity of mobilizing required finances for the agriculture and food sector transition through more commitment of governments to implement this process, wider participation of the private sector in finance and implementation, conducting more PPPs, creating an investment attracting atmosphere, derisking projects financing, activating debt swaps to co invest in agriculture and food projects, and establishing carbon markets that suit the priorities of the developing countries and emerging markets economies.