Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat stressed the importance of exploring opportunities to advance sustainable development efforts worldwide and stimulate the climate action agenda. She highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing war in Europe, and climate change on the high cost of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the increasing financing gap in emerging economies and developing countries.
The Minister made these remarks at the “Capital Mobilization and Sustainable Financing Development” session, which was part of the 1st High-Level Meeting of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development in Beijing, China. The session was organised by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to discuss the Global Development Initiative proposed by the Chinese President in 2021, as well as to promote global development efforts to address the challenges facing different countries through multilateral cooperation.
The Minister noted that global challenges have led to an increase in the financing gap for achieving the SDGs. She explained that the financing required to achieve development and climate action continues to increase, which underscores the importance of partnerships and joint action.
The Minister also highlighted the importance of moving forward to strengthen mechanisms for providing financing, especially from the private sector, to promote the development agenda and climate action. She noted that the Egyptian government has embarked on an extensive consultation process with more than 100 relevant entities, including the private sector, think tanks, research centres, and development partners. The aim of this process is to reach an implementable agenda and a practical solution to promote climate financing through the “Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing”, which will be launched during Finance Day at COP27.
The Minister concluded by saying that the Egyptian government has translated the recommendations of the “Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing” into a practical and realistic manner by launching the national platform for green projects, the NWFE program. This program is a nexus of water, food, and energy projects that aims to stimulate climate action, attract investments, and move from climate pledges to implementation.
