Within the activities of Cop27 in Sharm El-Sheikh: The Minister of Planning and Economic Development participates in an event entitled "Accelerating the Achieving SDGs through Sovereign Funds"
09 November 2022
H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development who is acting also as Chairperson of The Sovereign Fund of Egypt, participated today in the "Accelerating the Achieving SDGs Through Sovereign Funds" event.
This event is being held within the context of the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2022, COP27, which Egypt will host in Sharm El-Sheikh between 7-18 November, with the participation of more than 40 thousand people representing about 190 countries.
During her speech, El-Said stressed the critical importance of the climate situation and the seriousness of the challenges that are being faced, which are reflected in the difficult effects of climate change on future generations.
El-Said pointed out that the commitments announced by countries, including goals conditional on the availability of international financing, would reduce emissions by only 10% by 2030.
El-Said explained that this percentage is far from the path that scientists show that 45% of the cuts are necessary to keep 1.5 degrees of temperature within reach, noting the need for investments of at least 4 to 6 trillion dollars to overcome this challenge and decarbonize the global economy.
El-Said added that financing the transition to green energy is a major challenge, especially for developing countries, especially in the Middle East and North Africa and the African region, adding that this is evidenced by the limitations of affordable financing mechanisms, which have been available for a long time even before the latest stagnation periods.
El-Said explained that current United Nations estimates indicate that developing countries will need up to $340 billion by 2030 to finance adaptation.
El-Said said that funding for adaptation in developing countries amounted to $29 billion in 2020, and increased by only 4% over the previous year, adding that this is not enough to finance adaptation measures, such as facing floods and early warning systems, for countries that were least contributing to the climate problem.
El-Said stressed the importance of enhancing cooperation between the public and private sectors to speed up climate-related measures and settle the financing deficit without increasing the debt burden on developing countries.
El-Said added that through the integration of resources, public-private partnerships can help achieve breakthroughs as they provide several benefits, including cost and risk mitigation as well as effective and efficient project implementation.
El-Said pointed out that Egypt has achieved significant success stories that are achieved specifically through TSFE.
She further explained that the TSFE is working to enhance Egypt's potential by creating profitable investment products for the private sector for joint investment and supporting development agendas.