Mahmoud Mohieldin: The private sector is an essential partner in combating climate change
Mahmoud Mohieldin: The private sector is an essential partner in combating climate change
On the private sector and its financing role, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, the United Nations Special Envoy for Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the climate leader for the Egyptian presidency of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Climate Change Convention COP27, confirmed that the participation of theprivate sector has become essential for financing and implementing climate change adaptation projects at the local level. And the global.
This confirmation came during Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin’s participation in the “United Nations Climate Leaders and the Private Financial Sector Dialogue on Adaptation and Resilience,” where the Climate Leaders team organized this high-level dialogue in cooperation with the Resilience Center of the Rockefeller Foundation, at the headquarters of the Atlantic Council, in the presence of a number of investors and officials of the United Nations Environment Programme, as well as in the presence of members of the Insurance Development Forum.
The participants’ desire was to formulate procedures and develop a framework for contributions that the private financial sector can begin the steps to activate until the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties (COP) and beyond. Regarding this desire, Muhyiddin said: “There is an urgent need to reform global financing systems, such as international financial institutions and multilateral development banks. In order to ensure fair, adequate and effective mobilization of financing, through which the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be achieved in a constructive and balanced manner.”
He went on to explain that financing climate action is development financing that supports all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, he referred to the Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, indicating the main areas of work in the agenda: agriculture, food, nature, water, energy, coasts, oceans, and human settlements. These are areas that clearly affect the goals of sustainable development, in addition to achieving climate goals.
Regarding the decisions to achieve resilience in the face of climate change and reduce harmful emissions – in addition to dealing with the losses and damages resulting from these phenomena – Mohieddin saw that they are decisions that represent the first lines of defense in the face of changing environmental phenomena. Pointing out that measures to mitigate harmful emissions have effective participation from the private sector, in addition to their acquisition of a large proportion of the financing of multilateral development banks and international financing institutions, while the participation of the private sector does not exceed 3% of the total financing for measures to adapt to climate change, and here Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin stressed changing this, and creating the necessary balance between the areas that benefit from the financing.
He also stressed the importance of encouraging investment in the areas of adaptation, and that there is nothing wrong with reducing reliance on debt when financing climate action, in addition to activating the debt swap mechanism for investment in climate and nature. The climate pioneer of the Egyptian presidency of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Climate Change Convention – COP27 – saw the necessity of establishing carbon markets, as a very important means of financing various climate actions and projects. Referring in this regard to the “African Carbon Markets Initiative”, which was launched duringCOP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, an initiative that called for strengthening the capacity of African countries and financing their climate projects.
For all of this, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin devoted part of his speech to strengthening partnerships between the public and private sectors, in parallel with the governance of environmental work, and the social practices of companies in these two vital sectors. This strengthening will be through implementing the standards contained in relevant international reports. So that the world can confront greenwashing.
Regarding the loss and damage file, Mohieldin said: “Work is underway to establish the working mechanisms of the Loss and Damage Fund, which was launched during the Sharm El-Sheikh conference.” He explained that the launch of such a fund had received support from members of the Group of Seven industrialized countries and members of the Group of Twenty, this – of course – with great support from developing countries.
Then Mohieldin added, saying: “We must all work to select climate projects that can be implemented while providing continuous means of financing, and this we must work on before the start of the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties (COP) in Dubai at the end of this year.”
At the end of his speech, he referred to the launch of the second edition of the five regional forums, organized by the Egyptian and Emirati presidencies of the Sharm El-Sheikh and Dubai conferences, in partnership with the regional economic commissions of the United Nations and the Climate Pioneers Team. To mobilize funds for projects to combat climate change, and to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
