COP27 Prioritizes Food, Water and Energy; Calls for Digitalization: Mahmoud Mohieldin

Ahram Online 

Sunday 4 Sep 2022

The 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), set to be held in November in Sharm El-Sheikh, prioritises discussions on food, water and energy, Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt, said on Sunday.

Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt

In a webinar hosted by Ain Shams University, Mohieldin said food, water and energy are essential for human life and have been affected negatively by global warming and climate change.

The webinar discussed the impact of climate change on food production in dry areas, with the participation of Mahmoud El-Meteni, the university president, and a host of academics, professors and scientific researchers from inside and outside Egypt.

The climate crisis, COVID-19 and rising geopolitical tensions, especially in Ukraine, have amplified poverty rates and added to the global food crisis, and also led to a big increase in the number of people who suffer from food insecurity and a lack of water and energy all around the world, he explained.

Mohieldin called for activating digitalisation in the fields of agriculture, water and energy, and to widely benefit from new technologies to achieve sufficiency in these vital areas.

Mohieldin also said that development and climate action are overstuffed with pledges and agreements, and fulfilling them has become doubtful over time, especially with the accumulation of crises.

For this reason, he said, the Egyptian presidency of COP27 gives high priority to turn these pledges into actual and immediate action that is in line with the Paris agreement and 2030 sustainable development agenda.

"The actual implementation of climate projects continuously needs updated databases and scientific research, and this highlights the importance of the role that universities and scientific research centres can play in development and climate action," he explained.

The climate champion stressed that the holistic approach in dealing with all aspects of sustainable development is obligatory, and that confining development action to climate projects and confining climate action into decarbonisation harms sustainable development tracks in many countries.

“COP27 focuses on the holistic approach where climate action includes mitigation, adaptation, dealing with losses and damages, and financing climate projects,” Mohieldin said.

Projects in the cards

The previous COPs focused in general on the international effort to curb climate change, while the Sharm El-Sheikh conference will focus on the regional and local dimensions of climate action that effectively add to the international effort to achieve climate goals, he said.

Relating to the regional dimension of climate action, Mohieldin mentioned the five major regional roundtables initiative, saying that three of them have already been done in the last few weeks and resulted in 39 investable development and climate projects in Africa and Asia, while 20 to 25 projects are expected to be announced after the LAC roundtable, which will be held in 1-2 September.

“Egypt has launched the green smart projects initiative to pick the best development projects from all governorates that go with the Paris agreement and make the maximum benefit from digitalisation," Mohieldin said.

Eighteen projects across Egypt will be selected to be showcased during COP27, he pointed out.

Egypt, as it hosts one of the most important and biggest conferences in the world, presents model initiatives and programs of regional and local development and climate action to the whole world, he added.

Financing climate action

Mohieldin also said that COP27 will focus on financing climate action, and will push towards fulfilling previous COP pledges, especially the annual $100 billion pledged by the Copenhagen conference to finance climate projects in developing countries.

The Egyptian presidency of the conference also gives high importance to discussing post-2025 financing climate action, he said.

"Ways of financing climate action should be widened to include investments according to international criteria to avoid green washing; enhancing the private sector participation through highlighting the great investment opportunities in climate action, especially in developing countries; activating innovative finance mechanisms such as green and blue bonds and debt swaps; linking states' public budgets to development action; and establishing carbon markets that suit priorities and situations of developing countries and emerging market economies," Mohieldin explained.

He called for widely adopting the IDA criteria for financing development action, where countries are given extended repayment periods with reduced interests.

He also expressed his hope that middle-income countries will be allowed to benefit from IDA alongside low-income countries.