Mahmoud Mohieldin, the UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that the upcoming climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh provides an opportunity to present the priorities of the health sector in line with the holistic approach adopted by COP27 presidency which integrates the dimensions of health, education and infrastructure within the framework of sustainable development plans.
This came during his speech at the 69th session of the World Health Organisation Conference on the Eastern Mediterranean, in the presence of the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, where the climate champion praised the co-operation between the organisation and the Egyptian government as well as the United Nations.
The climate champion pointed to the need to link the priorities of climate action with the world’s challenges related to health, stressing that the climate summit will be held at the worst moments that the world is going through politically and economically, in light of a scarcity and a crisis of confidence and an excess of crises. Mohieldin noted the need for the health sector to take into account environmental considerations, especially since this sector contributes about 4.4 per cent of the total emissions.
On the other hand, Mohieldin warned against reducing sustainability to climate action and reducing climate action to reducing emissions, stressing that this approach is a misleading approach and has not made any progress in the file of climate action.
Instead of reducing harmful emissions in accordance with the pledges made by no less than 45 By 2030, emissions are increasing by about 14 percent, a marked deviation from the target, he added.
According to the climate champion, this holistic approach is reflected in the work agenda of the upcoming summit based on the Paris Agreement by integrating the four dimensions related to mitigation, adaptation, losses and damages, as well as the financing file.
In the same context, Mohieldin stressed the need to better deal with the file of losses and damages, especially in light of the humanitarian catastrophe that Pakistan has been subjected to. With regard to the priorities of the upcoming climate summit, the climate champion explained that it will focus on implementation and practical application, which will contribute to facing the health effects resulting from high temperatures, harmful emissions and malnutrition.
During his speech, Mohieldin pointed to the importance of integrating the regional dimension into climate action, noting that there are positive results resulting from the co-operation between COP27 Presidency, the Climate Champions and the United Nations regional commissions, where a number of projects that can be financed, implemented, invested and have an impact on adaptation and mitigation files will be announced.
The climate champion also highlighted the importance of localising climate action so that citizens feel the fruits of those climate-related summits, referring to the unprecedented initiative launched by the Egyptian government, the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects.
Mohieldin also stressed the need to provide the necessary funding, given the existence of a large gap of trillions of dollars, bearing in mind that 80 per cent of climate financing comes from the public budgets of countries.
Mohieldin added that Copenhagen’s pledge to provide $100 billion annually to support climate action in developing countries represents only 3 per cent of these countries’ needs. Therefore, the climate champion recommended the necessity of encouraging and activating innovative financial instruments and benefiting from the financial markets concerned with sustainable green finance.
