More than $500B will be required in Africa to achieve universal energy access by 2030: UN

CAIRO - 8 September 2022: Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed thanked President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the Government of Egypt for bringing us together with Finance Ministers before COP27, to deliver a clear message, “It's time for implementation at scale and with a sense of urgency.”

This came during her speech at the Egypt International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICT2022) and the African Ministers of Finance, Economy, and Environment Meeting for the COP27.

Mohammed elaborated that many parts of the world are simultaneously facing the fury of climate change and the cost of living crisis. Lives of migrants are being destroyed. Climate Action is stalling.

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations called for going beyond statements and action concrete and viable initiatives clear profits and lessons.

She stated that developing countries need to know which financial instruments are effectively available to support their transition to sustainable and climate resilient economies, adding that these countries must deliver on the $100 billion annual commitment and make up for the years of falling short. “This is key to restoring trust between countries and in the multilateral system, making good on handshake solidarity,” she commented.

According to Mohammed’s speech, in Africa alone, more than $500 billion will be required to achieve universal energy access by 2030. By then, the climate finance adaptation will constitute $440 billion.

She pointed out that the Secretary General has repeatedly called to increase and allocate half of funding finance rotation, the Glasgow decision veracious developed countries to collect the yellow adaptation finance service to $40 billion.

“But we still need a clear roadmap on how this will be done by COP27.”

 “We need to localize climate solutions and investments at the grassroot level within the holistic framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Amina Mohammed continued.

The deputy secretary-general of the UN expressed her encouragement of the efforts made by Egypt in terms of the National Initiative for green and small projects; which aims to reduce the lowest investment for a globalized investment map for Egypt.

“Climate Resilience investments must become the new normal strategy for delivering on the SDGs,” she stated.

Moreover, she welcomed the NWFE country platform that has been presented today by the government of Egypt and its partners.

The Ministry of International Cooperation launched the national platform for green projects (NWFE) program, last July, which aims to promote a list of national projects in energy, food, and water; all aligned with the National Strategy for Climate Change 2050.It is part of the international cooperation ministry’s efforts to benefit from development funding and increase private sector participation, through blended finance de-risking tools, in development projects.

It aims to achieve sustainable, low-emission development and enhance scientific research and technology transfers in the climate change field.

Part of the support for the NWFE program will be provided in the form of a grant, while the other part will be soft financing and investments by the private sector at a total cost of nearly $10 billion.

She also said  that the platform will accelerate the implementation mode of Egypt's 2050 Country climate strategy, for the transition to a climate resilient, netzero future during this decade.

“Through coordination, both on the country level and among international partners, we can look at our outcomes at the pace and the scale which is required, the UN system stands ready to accompany each other to support the implementation of the same type of innovation cooperation is needed to ensure that the Congo forest spaces and invaluable carbon sink and its populations are protected and continue to provide the much needed ecosystem services," she added.

“For developing countries, the cost of Arctic adaptation is five to 10 times greater than the financial support they can count on,” she stated.

According to Mohammed, international financial institutions and developments must step up to the chair entrepreneurial orientation. That means supplying much needed annotation finance, simplifying procedures of a success and ensuring fast delivery. At the same time, we must also foster investment opportunities that will attract the finance sector, the private sector across the globe and build resilience.

The COP 27 presidency, the UN climate champions, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa are working tirelessly to identify those projects with huge potential for private investment. “But we must go to selected projects”

Furthermore, the deputy Secretary General of the UN said, “We must urgently reform the multilateral development banks to take into account climate risk and fully support the transition to the developing countries.”

She noted that 15 African countries are at risk of external and public debt distress, and six are already facing debt distress, adding that African countries are scheduled to pay US$64 billion in debt repayments in 2022; twice the amount that is available in financial aid.

“While some countries will need comprehensive assistance to restructure their debt, we must improve the multilateral framework for debt applying to validation sources,” she stated.

Mohammed pointed out that sustainable debt help during this forum will provide a link between debt issuances, and key performance indicators addressing climate resilience.

She concluded her speech by saying that sustainable investment and climate finance at a pace and scale requires private investment. ”We need a well-functioning and transparent carbon market that matches the scale of climate change and provides valuable financing opportunities for developing countries.”

As the official host of the COP27 conference, Egypt is determined attain the required results in terms of supporting the African countries to benefit from the climate finances at the utmost efficiency.

In addition, Egypt is set to stimulate additional finances through adopting innovative financing instruments that aims at facilitating the access to the climate finances for the African countries.

Consequently, Egypt-ICF 2022 and the Meeting of African Ministers of Economy, Finance and Environment, will both represent a platform for governments, multilateral and bilateral development partners, philanthropic foundations, private sector, think tanks and civil society to consider the challenges the continent is offset by and explore the avenues to overcome them.

Moreover, Egypt-ICF 2022 is a platform to discuss the mechanisms of achieving the fair green transition in Africa.

Egypt-ICF 2022 Core Objectives include ensuring the coherence between the situation of the African climate financing with the continent actual needs, giving the priority to for the procedures that African countries can execute with supporting increasing the climate finances, and showcasing the successful development experiences while supporting the fresh initiatives and the doable policies in terms of climate adaptation and mitigation.