UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda Mahmoud Mohieldin said that the chance is still in hand to deal with the shortage of climate finance through incentivize regulations, supporting bankable and investable projects in the developing countries that have been resulted from Regional Platforms of Climate Projects (RPCP), and financing climate action in developing countries without adding more debt burden on their shoulders.
According to a press release in Cairo, this came during his participation in COP28 Presidency Press Conference with the participation of Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi, COP28 General Manager, and Vera Songwe, Co-chair of the High Level Experts Panel on Climate Finance.
Mohieldin stated that addressing deficiencies in climate action financing will not be done through a single initiative. According to the Global Climate Finance Report, climate finance has recently increased to $1.3 trillion, which is double what it was in 2019/20, but adaptation financing has declined from 7% of the climate finance to only 5%, and climate projects in developing countries and emerging economies are not sufficiently funded, while financing focuses on mitigation activities in developed countries, noting that the flow of finance for climate projects in developing countries will be by negative starting next year due to the debt crisis.
He added that climate action can be implemented and its goal can be achieved if it has adequate and fair finance, technology cooperation and knowledge sharing, and the development of policies that incentivize climate action.
The climate champion praised the UAE’s announcement of the launch of a $30 billion climate fund as the it aims not only to finance climate action but also to build capacity and provide technical assistance for the implementation of climate projects.
He said that the activation of the Loss and Damage Fund is a positive action in COP28 as it builds on the success achieved by COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh conference in this file, as the fund would change the dynamics of climate action at the level of financing and governance of the Fund on the one hand, and stimulate efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change to reduce the cost of human and material losses resulting from climate change on the other.
