Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, participated in the event held by the OPEC Fund for International Development, among other events in "Finance Day" at the COP27 Climate Conference, chaired and hosted by Egypt in Sharm el-Sheikh, to announce the financial package for financing the green transformation by the Arab Coordination Group, along with Dr. Mohammed al-Jasser, President of the Islamic Development Bank Group, and Dr. Abdul Hamid al-Khalifa, Director General of OPEC.
The Arab Coordination Group comprises 10 national, regional and international institutions: Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa and Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development the Arab Gulf Development Program, the Arab Monetary Fund and the Islamic Development Bank; Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, OPEC Fund for International Development and Qatar Fund for Development and the Saudi Development Fund, during which the President of the Islamic Development Bank Group announced The Arab Coordinating Group planned to make climate financing worth $24 billion available until 2030 to support the climate finance agenda.
At the outset, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation, congratulates the Arab Coordination Group to Launch Funding Package to Support Climate Action and Energy Transformation to 2030, indicating that COP27, the Conference on the Transition from Pledges to Implementation and that most of the commitments made at the Glasgow Conference must take their way towards implementation on the ground through realistic and attractive investment projects that stimulate the private sector's participation in development efforts.
The Minister of International Cooperation noted that the Egyptian Government is working closely with all international and regional funds and financial institutions to stimulate climate efforts, thanking the OPEC Fund for International Development, the Islamic Development Bank and the Arab Coordination Group for their efforts to work closely with Egypt to support development efforts.
The Minister of International Cooperation spoke on the National Platform for Green Projects "NWFE", which was launched last July. Throughout this period, there has been a lot of effort and work in coordination with national agencies and development partners, resulting in yesterday's announcement of billions of dollars in funding from international institutions and multilateral and bilateral development partners, including development grants, technical and technical support, mixed financing and debt swaps, to stimulate private sector participation in development.
Al-Mashat explained that innovative finance is one of the important mechanisms through which climate finance can be stimulated and green transformation efforts, which Egypt is working on through the "NWFE" program. Today, the Sharm el-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Finance will be launched, which sets a practical framework for stimulating climate and innovative finance in developing countries and emerging economies.
Developed countries had pledged $100 billion in funding to developing countries for climate action, but the needs were much greater. It was therefore essential that the Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Conference should be the conference to implement the world's commitments.
Egypt is linked with the OPEC Fund for International Development with strong development cooperation relations spanning decades, and the joint cooperation portfolio reached about $1.5 billion.