Sharm El-Sheikh– Mahmoud Mohieldin — Egypt’s High-Level Climate Change Champion at the UN — said that Egypt, through the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP27), succeeded in placing adaptation, losses, and damages on the international climate action agenda after more than ten years of neglect.
This came during a session titled ‘Towards Blue Cities: Adapting and Building Resilience to Climate Change in Coastal Communities and Cities of Africa’ in which he discussed the consequences of rising sea levels on small islands and the floods that have submerged about a third of Pakistan’s area under water.
He also noted that prevention of these disasters will only take place with huge investments in mitigation measures, adding that transition towards a blue economy requires strong partnerships between public and private sectors, active participation of national development banks, and international financial institutions adopting standards for soft grants and loans and providing them to middle-income countries as well as low-income ones.
Furthermore, the climate champion confirmed that the blue economy also needs more finance for adaptation measures, pointing to the importance of the Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda as an international mechanism to promote adaptation measures and strengthen resilience to face climate change.
Finally, Mohieldin praised the five regional forums that were held ahead of the conference, which resulted in 420 projects, 50 of which are being showcased at the COP27, some even relating to the transition to a blue economy.
