Minister Rania Al-Mashat: “This guidebook translates commitments into implementable projects and captures opportunities to leverage and catalyze finances to support the climate agenda”
Tony Blair: “This guidebook is a practical example of the leadership Egypt’s presidency in the lead-up to COP27. I want to congratulate Minister Rania A. Al-Mashat and the government for launching this guidebook”
The second day of the Egypt-International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF) in its second edition highlighted the importance of the Conference of Partners on Climate Change (COP27) in forging a common path for climate action in Africa, and leveraging the role of philanthropies in fulfilling developed countries’commitments to support developing economies to fast-track their adaptation and mitigation efforts.
On Thursday, the Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat revealed the first draft of the Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing, which will be launched during the anticipated COP27 that is scheduled to be held in November.
Al-Mashat made the announcement during a roundtable discussion held on Thursday on the sidelines of Egypt-ICF 2022 entitled: “Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing.”
“This guidebook translates commitments into implementable projects and captures opportunities to leverage and catalyze finances to support the climate agenda, especially in Africa, with the key objective of maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of existing climate finance architecture through proposing an actionable roadmap for all the stakeholders to achieve just financing outcomes,” the minister explained.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair, President of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said that the Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing is a practical tool that identifies the challenges caused by climate change and provides pathways for development actors to leverage public and private sector finances.
“This guidebook is a practical and technical example of the leadership of Egypt’s presidency in the lead-up to COP27. I want to congratulate Dr Rania A. Al-Mashat and the government for launching this guidebook,” he added.
“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”.
He also highlighted the impressive story of the Benban Solar Power Plant, which is the largest in Africa and the fourth biggest globally, adding that such a project serves as an example for other countries to achieve the SDGs and climate action simultaneously.
For his part, Vice Chairman for Banking and Capital Markets at Citi Bank underscored the importance of public-private partnerships in accelerating investment for climate action, adding that climate-related projects need to be supported with specific tools.
He also called for utilizing equity investors to invest intensively in energy projects in Africa to accelerate the green transition in the continent.
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.