Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that hosting COP27 is important to raise awareness and enhance the participation of the Egyptian society in dealing with climate issues.
His remarks came during a lecture entitled “Financing Transition to Green Economy in the Developing Countries” organized by Institute of National Planning, with the participation of Dr Hala El Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Indian Economy expert.
Mohieldin clarified that COP27 will take only a couple of weeks, while its results and impacts will stay, expressing his confidence that the conference will lead to a change in communities thoughts and in the policies of governments, organizations and stakeholders in a way that leads to achieve climate targets.
“Think tanks and media should work together to explain climate issues to the society and simplify the scientific terms in a way that help raising awareness about the severity of climate change.” Mohieldin said, referring to the recent international surveys that showed that 49% of people all around the world believe that climate change doesn’t represent a big crisis and doesn’t require immediate measures to handle it.
He stressed the necessity of realizing the impacts of climate change on the different aspects of life such as public health and economic growth, saying that COP27 is calling for adopting a holistic approach that link climate action to achieving the other SDGs.
Mohieldin asked the Egyptian research centers and universities to continue organizing lectures and seminars about clime in collaboration with the international organizations, with involving more researchers and students in these events, explaining that Egypt presidency of COP27 starts on it’s first day, and this requires intensifying climate related activities in the coming period of time.
The Indian economy expert Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that COP27 will be held in extraordinary circumstances in the shade of global crises resulted from Corona pandemic, war in Ukraine, political and economic tensions between USA and China, and many other geopolitical tenses.
Despite these crises, Ahluwalia said, the international community is strongly demanded to make hard decisions and steps to curb climate change, which is the message expected from COP27 to the whole world, explaining that the conference is demanded to ask all actors to set pragmatic plans and time frameworks for implementing climate action.
He added that financing climate action in the developing countries in the current circumstances needs blending international and local financing, combine public and private finance, beside the contribution of the multilateral development banks in financing, cooperating with governments to improve their policies in a way that enhances public finance of climate action and encourages the participation of private sector in finance and implement climate projects.
