$250B needed for African continent to implement its NDCs: Al-Mashat

This came during the minister's participation in the “Transition Finance towards Net Zero: Scaling Blended Finance” Conference, organized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and in Partnership with Convergence and McKinsey & Company, ahead of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

 

The conference’s opening remarks included Al-Mashat, as well as Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ravi Menon the Managing Director of the  Monetary Authority of Singapore. 

 

In her speech, Al-Mashat stressed that climate action has become a major part of our daily lives, and has also become a top concern for countries, institutions and societies. However, despite the increasing attention to climate, the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Europe has raised the cost of the climate action agenda, thus reinforcing the need for multilateral cooperation to mobilize development efforts towards a just, green transition. 

 

The Minister also indicated that achieving the climate action agenda requires doubling the available financial resources, while also achieving distributional justice across regions and across sectors. Al-Mashat noted that the annual required amount for climate action is estimated at $5.7 trillion, which far exceeds what was provided during 2019-2020 ($632 billion), also reflecting the need to close financing gaps and that the pledge to provide developing countries with $100 billion is little compared to the actual required amount. 

 

The Minister stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic and the successive crises that followed proved that governments alone cannot move forward in achieving the SDGs, thus requiring a multistakeholder approach through multilateral cooperation for effective participation. Al-Mashat also noted the importance of private sector participation as shifting only 1.4 percent of global private financial assets would be sufficient to fill the climate finance gap. 

 

Al-Mashat added the COP27’s focus is on going from pledges to implementation, highlighting the need for adaptation and resilience projects, as well as a call for increased private sector engagement and participation of philanthropic organizations, to build on the outcomes of COP26.

 

Moreover, the Minister shared that in Glasgow 2021, Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation organized an event in collaboration with MDBs and private sector representatives, on how to increase climate investments to implementable projects in developing and emerging economies. For the same purpose, the Ministry of International Cooperation launched an inclusive consultative process with more than 70 entities representing development partners, MDBs, commercial banks, private sector, philanthropies, think tanks, and civil society to underpin an ambitious and realistic actionable climate agenda to create an international framework for innovative financing. 

 

Al-Mashat noted that these consultations led to the Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing which will be launched during COP27, encompassing a clear framework what promotes innovative and blended finance regionally and internationally, while also stimulating active participation of relevant stakeholders to increase climate finance of adaptation and mitigation projects. 

 

Taking this framework to the national level, following the endorsement of Egypt’s National Climate Change Strategy 2050 and the country’s NDC, the Ministry identified a set of high priority projects for adaptation and mitigation that are aligned with the national and international climate agenda and launched Egypt’s country platform for the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) Program.