The Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, participated in the IIF Emerging Markets and Sustainable Finance Summit 2022, which was held virtually on Thursday, September 15, in a dialogue session with Institute of International Finance Executive Vice President Clay Lowery.
The summit addresses the most critical issues facing emerging markets, such as the need to promote sustainable capital flows to emerging economies to move in line with the growing priorities for the global investment community. It brings together public and private sectors to mobilize climate and environmental finance ahead of COP27 and the opportunities that are available to build ESG markets.
The Minister highlighted that Egypt and Indonesia's hosting of two global events this year, namely Egypt's presidency of the United Nations Climate Conference COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, and Indonesia's G20 Presidency, serves as proof of the changing global order that puts the voices of the South at the forefront.
The Minister pointed out that the COP27 climate conference, which will be held in Egypt this year, focuses on unifying important messages for the African continent, the first of which is supporting adaptation to climate change to build resilience, and the second is moving from pledges to implementation.
The Minister pointed out that in order to move from pledges to implementation, each development actor has an important role to play to support climate action and provide adequate financing for adaptation and mitigation projects.
Reflecting this, the Minister added that Egypt is working on the Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Finance, 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.
In preparation for the COP27 conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt is organizing five regional forums in Ethiopia, Bangkok, Beirut, Santiago and Geneva, to provide a platform for countries to present their bankable and investable projects in climate action and to promote regional integration.
Underpinned by Egypt’s 2050 Country Climate Strategy, 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. A list of bankable and investable 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 Minister referred to the two roundtables that were organized during the Egypt- International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF), in which all multilateral and bilateral development partners underscored the importance of the platform as a leading regional model that can be applied in developing and emerging economies to enhance climate action.
To unite the global goals for climate action, the Minister called for the consideration of debt swaps to ease the financial burden on developing countries and emerging economies.
The Ministry of International Cooperation, in cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Environment, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, organized the second edition of the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF), and the meeting of African Ministers of Economy, Finance and Environment, under the auspices and presence of President Abdel Fattah Sisi.
The forum witnessed the participation of more than 23 African governments, and around 20 discussion sessions, workshops and roundtables were held to galvanize the international community to support Africa’s climate change agenda, and to build drumbeat for "Finance Day" during COP27.