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.
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 to mitigate and adapt with them.
Blair made his statement during his participation in a roundtable discussion titled “Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing” organized on the sidelines of Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF 2022)’s 2nd edition, which kicked off on Wednesday at the New Administrative Capital.
“This guidebook is a practical and technical example of the leadership Egypt’s presidency and government are showing in the lead-up to the to the COP27. I want to congratulate Dr Rania A. Al-Mashat and the government for launching this guidebook,” said Blair.
He noted that the guidebook sets principles for just financing and touches upon all the development aspects, adding: “it sets a real action plan to deal with climate change impacts on the African continent and developing economies. It also sets funds as catalyst for climate action”.
In this respect, Blair explained that the guidebook acts as the foundation stone for inancial stakeholders to enable them to leverage finances that are key for the continent to adapt to climate change and mitigate its implications.
“This include both public and private sectors as well as bilateral and multilateral institutional investors, venture capitals, development banks and also philanthropies and impact investors”, Blair said.
“It is now about implementation”, Blair asserted. “We have to increase our commitment for developing countries. It is more important now besides fighting the climate change itself,” Blair stated.
Blair also hailed NWFE Programme, adding: “NWFE is one of the most exciting platforms in the climate action area, it is an ambitious and practical platform in this regard”.
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