On the second day of the Egypt International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF) in its second edition, a workshop titled “Private Sector Engagement In Climate Adaptation Projects” to put forward avenues and strategies to engage the private sector in climate change and raise climate-smart investment.
During the workshop, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, H.E. Hany Swallem, underscored that there are a lot of promising opportunities in water desalination. He added that technological developments in the water desalination sector are happening at a rapid pace to meet water demand, which requires significant investment in capacity building and upskilling local engineers.
To keep pace with these technological developments, regional director of the World Bank for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti, Marina Wes, emphasized the role the private sector can play in financing projects related to adaptation.
This is exemplified by the Egypt Country Platform for NWFE (Nexus of Food, Water and Energy), which allows Egypt to upscale the capacity to mobilise climate finance through bundling outcomes into feasible and investable projects across the region.
Wes added that the World Bank is deepening its cooperation with Egypt in a diverse number of projects, and that the Bank will provide further support work to finance the (NWFE) program under the water pillar.
“The existence of such ambitious strategies in developing countries encourages the private sector to participate and contribute,” Wes highlighted.
On her side, Becca Morin, Special Representative of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, emphasized that adaptation projects are profitable projects and provide promising investment opportunities. However, she underscored that financing for adaptation projects requires strong policies that attract financing and investment, which come about through transparency, good management, and project planning.
From the perspective of the private sector, Chief Sustainability Officer of Commercial International Bank (CIB) Dalia Abdel Qader, said that enhancing the private sector's participation in financing climate change adaptation projects requires an understanding of the sector's interest in making profits.
This implies that governments need to market adaptation projects as more profitable, and showcase the opportunities that can be catalyzed upon in order to encourage the private sector to participate.
She explained that the CIB is currently implementating two adaptation projects in Egypt, and is also the first bank to issue green bonds. There is also a strong interest to finance projects for the Egypt Country Platform for NWFE.
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 access 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.