Mohieldin: Africa Carbon Markets initiative aims to help African states finance development, climate action

16 / 11 / 2022

By Marwa Nassar - -

Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, United Nations Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt and UN Special Envoy on Financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, said Africa Carbon Markets initiative launched during the UN climate summit COP27 that aims to enhance the capabilities of African countries to finance development and climate action.

He highlighted the importance of establishing carbon markets, stressing the necessity of redefining the priorities of public budgets of states and link them to sustainability and development as a way to direct finance towards the correct fields and relief the burdens of public budgets.

His remarks came during his participation in “COP27 Resource Mobilization Collaboration: The action agendas addressing the intertwined crises” in COP27, with the participation of Nigel Topping, UN Climate Champion for COP26, and a number of officials and representatives of different governments and organizations.

“Development and climate action require pragmatic finance solutions.” Mohieldin stated, stressing the importance of encouraging private sector and investors for more involvement through attractive and stimulating economic policies.

Mohieldin pointed to the new generation of debt swaps for co-investing in environment and climate projects, adding that Barbados and Seychelles provided good models of the successful applying for this financing mechanism.

Mohieldin emphasized that adopting IDA soft grants and loans criteria among all financing entities is essential, especially that IDA provides a long-term repayment periods and low interest rates.