Mahmoud Mohieldin, the UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt, attends a seminar at the Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group in Jeddah on Saturday. Mohieldin Media Office
Mohieldin made his remarks during a high-level seminar on the energy and climate-related achievements of the Indonesian presidency of the G20, during the annual meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, held from 10-13 May in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The event featured the participation of Mohamed Al-Jadaan, Saudi Arabia’s minister of finance; Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia’s minister of finance and IsDB governor; and Mohamed Al-Jasser, chairman of IsDB.
Mohieldin, who is also the UN special envoy on financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, indicated that for many years the world suffered from the reductive approach of dealing with sustainable development. However, now there is strong support for a holistic approach, which Egypt called for during its COP27 presidency. Such an approach gathers all climate measures stipulated by the Paris Agreement and puts them in a more comprehensive framework to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) together.
He stressed the importance of seriously addressing debt problems and activating debt reduction mechanisms, especially for financing climate and development action. Innovative financing tools, such as debt swaps, can help fund investment in nature and climate, while carbon markets can be an effective tool to mobilize funds for climate and development projects.
Mohieldin also stressed the need to enhance private sector participation in financing and implementing development and climate action, pointing in this regard to some promising public-private partnership models in Egypt, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
“International financing organizations must adopt concessional financing policies that include low interest rates and long grace and repayment periods,” Mohieldin said.
The climate champion explained that mitigation, adaptation and addressing loss and damage caused by climate change are the three lines of defense against the phenomenon. He stressed that enhancing these lines requires adopting a holistic approach and actual implementation of climate projects, both of which Egypt called for through its COP27 presidency.
Concluding his remarks, Mohieldin highlighted three keys to success for climate and development action: providing fair and sufficient funding, applying technological solutions and information sharing and changes in thoughts and behaviors of all actors.
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