Mideast Green Initiative perfect chance to provide new innovate financing mechanisms for climate projects: Sisi

CAIRO – 7 November 2022: The Middle East Green Initiative constitutes a perfect chance to foster cooperation among its member states in order to mobilize more investments and provide new mechanisms of innovative financing to back the countries’ projects aiming at addressing climate change.

This comes in coordination with Arab and regional financial institutions that assume an important role in this regard, Sisi said during a speech at the Middle East Green Initiative Summit on Monday on the sidelines of the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh.

“The initiative also constitutes a suitable framework to enhance technical cooperation and link research centers in member states with the aim of achieving integration among the research and applied programs linked with climate change technology,” Sisi stated.

In this regard, the president invited participants in the summit to put forward innovative ideas and constructive proposals that would contribute to enhancing climate action in the member countries within the framework of the principle of “implementation”.

“Our conference today represents an opportunity for leaders of the world, economic sectors, major international financial institutions and other partners to join these efforts toward a common undisputable goal, namely the inevitability to act urgently, promptly, and effectively to counter the challenge of climate change,” Sisi stated.

He added that this comes in spite of the economic challenges that the countries around the world face currently as well as the international political tensions resulting from the Russia-Ukraine crisis and other challenges.

“Everybody acknowledges that time is not on our side. Gaps in reducing emissions, in adaptation measures, and in providing mechanisms and means for implementation, primarily climate fund, need swift action and executive measures on the ground,” Sisi stated.

The Middle East Green Initiative was launched by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed a year ago as part of efforts to decrease regional carbon emissions.

During today’s summit, the Saudi crown prince said the kingdom will contribute $2.5 billion to the initiative over the coming ten years.