Financing the climate fight, the great focus of COP27

Finding ways to finance projects to mitigate climate change, adapt to the changes generated by the environmental emergency and compensation for the damage caused by this “existential threat to humanity” will be the central themes of the next COP27 Climate Summit, to be held in November in Egypt.

This was indicated in a telematic meeting with the press accredited to attend the conference by the special representative of the COP27 presidency, Wael Abulmagd, who also insisted that the meeting will revolve around the idea that “it is time to move from negotiation to implementation and from promises to actions on the ground”.

Abulmagd, Egyptian ambassador to Brazil and his country’s negotiator at COP26, recalled that estimates calculate that by 2050 climate change may mean a loss of 4% of the global economy, mainly affecting the least developed countries, and that five million people die every year from extreme temperatures.

Therefore, he assured that, for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, in which their operational aspects have been negotiated, “it is time to change from negotiation to implementation, from promises to actions on the ground.” But implementation also means, he said, “implementing the various promises and other commitments that have been announced by governments and other actors.”

In this regard, he referred to the other axis of COP27, to be held from November 6 to 18 in the tourist city of Sharm el Sheikh, on the Red Sea coast, which will consist of deciding how to finance the agreements regarding mitigation and, above all, adaptation and insisted that the participation of the private sector will be necessary in this regard.

“We need creative ways to conceive of financing, we need to encourage the private sector to step up and invest and we need to approve projects that can be supported, that can attract the trillions of dollars of private money that you want to invest in climate change,” the diplomat said.

On the other hand, Abulmagd acknowledged that the current war in Ukraine will have an impact on COP27 due to the scenario of confrontation between blocs that it has provoked and the “animosity it will generate among the attendees”, and warned of the possibility that this tension will be used “as a pretext for not fulfilling the promises” of financing.

Faced with this situation, he called on the parties to “put their differences aside” and work with “ambition” and “responsibility” to address a global crisis that affects “everyone equally.”

Source: The Agora