Mahmoud Mohieldin: Saving international security requires the developed countries contribution to finance climate targets in the developing ones

COP27 focused on fulfilling the previous pledges of financing and technical cooperation

Mohieldin announces new arrangements for financing climatic and developmental action that align with suggestions for reforming the global finance structure

Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said that what will push rich countries to contribute to financing SDGs including curbing climate change is realizing the national interest of these countries that is under the threat of climate deterioration danger that is threatening also the international security through mass exodus and the increasing of climatic asylum.

Mohieldin added, in an article for Al-Seyasa Al-Dawleya magazine, that the world, in case of taking a unified stand, will not need financial sources, scientific and technological solutions to deal with climate crisis, explaining that what the world is lacking to is the political will that can direct these sources and solutions to the most needed regions and countries.

Mohieldin suggested new arrangements for financing climatic and developmental action that align with suggestions for reforming the global finance structure. Financing system, according to this suggestion, allows at least 10 years grace period, and then 20 years payment period, with financing cost that does not exceed 1% including the contribution to the technical support, adding that this financing should be provided by the existing financing entities and specialized funds through the finances that have been pledged by the developed countries previously.

He suggested also decreasing the financing cost while raising these international development institutions capital to help providing extra trillion dollars that are required for bridging the finance gap.

Mohieldin described the current international financing system as insufficient, inefficient, and unfair, insufficient as the climate action financing gap estimated to be 1$ trillion annually until 2030 while the developed countries do not fulfill their pledges in Copenhagen to finance climate action in the developing countries by 100$ billion annually till the moment, inefficient because the financing process takes too long time between the day of making the deal by the related governments and and the day of poring these funds in the awaiting projects and work fields, and unfair as the developing countries are demanded to borrow with a high cost to deal with the climate crisis that have been caused mainly by the developed countries, and also because the public budgets of states are shouldering the largest amount of financing climate action while the private sector contributes shyly to financing some of climate action aspects.

In this context, Mohieldin said that COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh resulted in specific recommendations for restructuring the global finance system to help financing climate action and sustainable development. These recommendations could be categorized as touchable achievements of the conference beside the agreement of launching Loss and Damage Fund.

He said that the frame of satisfactory progress achieved by the conference includes the launching of Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda in five main work fields which are food and agriculture, water and nature, coasts and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructures. It includes also the establishment of a global warning system to deal with climate crisis according to the UN Secretary General initiative, the issuing of the high-level expert report that includes 10 recommendations relate to criteria and procedures of fulfilling Net-Zero pledges, facing green washing danger, and regulating sustainable financing markets for green economy.

He added that the satisfactory results of the conference include the just transition in the energy sector, including joint investments to exit from fossil energy and increase renewable energy, dealing with the economic and social effects of the transition process, and improving the financing and investment file through the launch of the Climate Action and Development Financing Report, and the declaration of the African Carbon Market Initiative , and the finance innovation to reduce debt and swap it for investment in climate and nature, and the commitment of insurance institutions to provide insurance coverage in Africa against climate risks worth 14$ billion according to the Nairobi Declaration.

Mohieldin noted the showcasing of the results of the Five Regional Roundtables Initiative for climate action projects launched by the Egyptian presidency of COP27, the regional economic committees of the United Nations and HLCs in Sharm El-Sheikh, and the issuance of a report on fifty model projects worldwide at an investment cost of 89$ billion, in addition to presenting the results of the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects in the Egyptian governorates as a model for the localization of climate action.

Mohieldin stressed that the conference avoided allowing the pledges made by previous conferences to be retracted, including those related to reducing climate-harmful emissions, explaining that the Sharm El-Sheikh conference focused on implementing previous pledges of financing and technical cooperation in this regard.

Mohieldin stressed that the current global economic situation, which is suffering from declining growth rates, threats of stagflation, crises in vital sectors such as food and energy, and high risks and costs of international debt, is not compatible with continuing to follow a reductive approach in sustainability policies to care of only one aspect of climate action, which is decarbonization, despite its great importance, and ignoring other aspects of climate action, especially adaptation to climate change that developing countries need, pointing to the need to re-include climate action within the framework of globally agreed sustainable development goals, and to end the isolated islands approach in international cooperation that has harmed sustainable development and poverty conditions, and did not fix the matter of climate action.