Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, agreed with international coalitions in India and Indian think tanks that governments should pay more attention to develop infrastructure that is not only resilient to natural disasters but to climate change impacts as well such as heat, water scarcity, and energy deficiencies.
His remarks came during a number of meetings in India with Mr. Amit Prothi, Director General of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), and Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). discussions focused mainly on climate action measures including mitigation, adaptation, dealing with losses and damages and financing climate projects.
Mohieldin stressed, during his meeting with the CDRI Director General, that adaptation measures as they require more attention of governments, they also require wider participation of the private sector whether through implementation or financing, with mainly institutional investors and philanthropies being the main contributors of the 3% adaptation financing that comes from the private sector.
Mohieldin explained that discussing the losses and damages file is one of the key moments at COP27, saying that the conference will also discuss the share of this file of climate action financing.
Regarding to Mitigation, Mohieldin praised the plan of International Solar Alliance (ISA) which is targeting to position solar energy as the energy source of choice by 2030.
The climate champion has been informed, during the meeting with ISA Director General, that in its next General Assembly meeting in mid-October, ISA is expected to present the progress achieved in the areas of solar technology, solar markets and solar investments.
In this context, ISA Director General mentioned that solar energy is cost-effective, noting a price decline of 80% over the past decade due to the developed solar technologies.
Mohieldin and ISA Director General discussed the institution plans in COP27 with a rich daily program in its Pavilion discussing the locations where solar energy is yet to develop as well as the mechanisms required to pull investments.
During his meeting with The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI) team, the institute officials explained to Mohieldin that climate efforts in India are mainly funded through domestic resources mobilisation, while money flowing from developed countries is being considered a catalyst to climate action rather than a tool of realisation.
Both sides agreed that when it comes to Just Transition, it is very important to set a timeline for it that definitely differs from one country to the other depending on their position on the spectrum and socio-economic conditions, instead of merely fixing a Net Zero goal with no short to medium term plans of how to reach that goal.
Dr Mohieldin made two field visits after the meetings to the National Institute of Solar Energy Campus and the TERI Gram Campus and Laboratories.
