UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, Mahmoud Mohieldin, affirmed the importance of implementing the Paris Agreement, and not to retreat this path in order to confront the current global challenges.
Mohieldin stated, during his participation in the 2022 Friends of Paris Agreement High Level Dialogue, that the 2015 agreement was an international achievement by every measure as it represents a global work platform that aims to achieve climate targets, stressing the necessity of implementing it.
He clarified that the 27th Conference of the Parties on climate change (COP27) that will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh next November gives high priority to the actual implementation of climate action in a frame of a holistic approach that aims to achieve all SDGs together without sacrificing one goal for another.
“Sharm El-Sheikh conference focuses on dealing with the future climate change problems through the immediate action in the four aspects of climate action mentioned by the Paris Agreement which are mitigation, adaptation, dealing with losses and damages, and financing climate action, with putting all of these in a holistic context to achieve sustainable development through fighting poverty and inequality, providing job opportunities, and investing in human capital and infrastructure.” Mohieldin said.
The climate champion clarified that COP27 will skip the pledges and promises and find practical solutions that help implementing climate projects. The conference will also bring state and non-state actors together to enhance all parties’ participation in implementing climate action.
Mohieldin said that Sharm El-Sheikh conference will work on filling the current gaps in the global joint work that resulted from the current global circumstances through enhancing regional aspects of climate action as a complement of the international effort, expressing his happiness with the results of the five regional forums initiative launched by Egypt presidency of COP27, UN regional economic commissions and HLCs, in which four of them resulted into more than 70 investable, bankable and applicable climate projects that some of them will benefit from GFANZ coalition regarding to finance.
He referred also to the local dimension of climate action which COP27 prioritizes as well, which aim to involve local actors in development and climate action so that the results of these efforts can be felt by all cities and villages habitants, highlighting the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects in Egypt that will be showcased in Sharm El-Sheikh as an unprecedented local climate action initiative.
Mohieldin said that COP27 focuses also on finance, referring to the necessity of having developed countries fulfilling their pledges to finance climate action in the developing countries, discussing post 2025 financing plans, working on reducing climate financing on debt basis in the developing countries and emerging markets, enhancing the private sector participation in financing and implementing climate projects, establishing carbon markets that suit economies of the developing countries, activating debt swaps for co investing in climate and nature action, enhancing ESGs to prevent greenwashing, and linking public budgets of states to development and climate action.
