On the sidelines of the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum, Minister of International Cooperation, Rania Al-Mashat, held a meeting with Tony Blair, President of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and former British Prime Minister, to identify ways to replicate Egypt’s tools and green initiatives to the continent of Africa.
During the meeting, the Minister welcomed Tony Blair and thanked him for accepting the invitation to participate in the Egypt- International Cooperation Forum. The minister pointed out that the forum provides a space for African government representatives to convene and coordinate on a common African vision before the COP27 climate conference.
The Ministry of International Cooperation and the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change collaborated on the "Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing", which comes as a timely initiative to go beyond pledges into fostering inclusive partnerships towards a climate-resilient future. It aims to outline the key role of each stakeholder in translating financial commitments into implementable projects and to capture opportunities to leverage and catalyze needed finance and investments to support the climate agenda.
The Minister of International Cooperation also highlighted the Egypt Country Platform for NWFE (Nexus on Food, Energy and Water), and discussed opportunities for cooperation with the Tony Blair Institute to adopt a regional network that can be replicated in developing countries and emerging economies, particularly in Africa.
Underpinned by Egypt’s 2050 Country Climate Strategy, a subset of adaptation and mitigation projects covering the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy was put together, reflecting the interlinkages between climate action and development efforts. The Ministry of International Cooperation (MOIC) launched Egypt’s Country Platform for NWFE نُوَفِّـي program, which provides opportunities for mobilizing finance and private investments to support Egypt’s green transition.
The Minister added that as part of the Government of Egypt’s COP27 activities, the Ministry of International Cooperation announced the launch of the global Climatech Run 2022 competition, which targets tech entrepreneurs and digital artists who share a collective passion for sustainability to present their work at COP27.
For his part, Tony Blair noted that the Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing is a practical tool that identifies the challenges caused by climate change to leverage public and private sector finances.
This year’s Egypt-ICF and the Meeting of African Ministers of Economy, Finance and Environment, will provide 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 avenues to overcome them.
The Forum’s overall objectives include: mobilization of, and acess to finance, to mobilize financing and catalyze private sector investments, focused on developing countries and Africa; financing climate action, adaptation and mitigation to leverage the necessary public and private support to accelerate climate action; and providing a timely platform to explore needed national actions that would help progress towards a just and green transition.