Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda emphasised the importance of considering the debt crises experienced by a number of African countries and the continent’s climate targets, particularly adaptation activities when financing climate projects in Africa.
He shared these thoughts during “Unlocking Climate Finance Flows to African Projects,” a session of the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) held in Nairobi, Kenya. Mills Schenk, Partner at Boston Consulting Group and head of the firm’s Nairobi office, also participated in the session.
Mohieldin noted that the Five Regional Roundtables Initiative, launched by the Egyptian presidency of COP27 in collaboration with UN regional economic commissions and the HLCs last year, addressed the question of financiers about the existence of investable and bankable climate projects in different countries and regions.
The initiative aimed to find projects that have the required standards so that governments, the private sector, and regional and international development partners can contribute to their financing and implementation.
The initiative also aimed to find partnership models that bring these parties together to help achieve the final goal of financing and implementing the projects.
Mohieldin stressed the need to stimulate private sector participation in financing these projects and contribute more to the environment and climate-related action.
He further emphasised the need for concessional financing policies that include low-interest rates, long-term repayment and grace periods, making concessional financing available to both middle-income and low-income countries.
He also pointed out that there is no contradiction between development finance and climate finance, and that the implementation of mitigation and adaptation activities is an implementation of several SDGs related to energy, water and food security, infrastructure, forest and marine life protection, poverty reduction, and job creation.
