Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin: Climate action is the only way to invest in economic growth

CAIRO-EGYPT: Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High Level Champion for Egypt, said on Friday that the cost of climate inaction is becoming the biggest threat to economic growth, so at this point the reality is that climate action is the only way to invest in economic growth.

His remarks came during his participation via video conference in a session entitled “PPP for COP27 and Beyond”, within the activities of the annual meeting of the World Association of PPP Units & Professionals (WAPPP).

Mohieldin stressed that the rising cost of climate inaction makes risk management “more and more important,”  and investments in adaptation and resilience in fact are good value investments, adding that measures of adaptation and resilience necessarily require the partnership between the public and private sector either in financing or implementation.

He explained that public and private sectors both have a role to play, public helping to put a legislative frame that allows more contribution of the private sector in climate projects and overcome structural barriers and systemic risks, while private to help achieve required capacity and financing scale.

The climate champion emphasized that the absence of an obvious framework that identifies specifically the role of both sectors in climate action could lead to the mismanagement of climate projects and the laxity or postponement of implementation, which raises the already high cost of climate change.

“We are seeing an increasingly strong business case for investments in low carbon technologies and solutions, multiple benefits of these actions to other SDGs make them even better investment.” Mohieldin said, referring to the growing commitment and action from leading companies who see the strategic imperative of incorporating climate action into their strategies as a way to achieve economic growth.

Mohieldin said that climate campaigns such as Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, and coalitions such as Glasgow Financial Alliance for NetZero, represent promising opportunities for PPP and productive partnership within the private sector, adding that the role of climate champions is to link between governments and non-state actors, public and private sectors, and businesses within the private sector in order to mobilize efforts and reach the required financing scale of climate action.

“We encourage all of you to redouble your efforts this year, and invite you to come to Sharm El Sheikh with tangible examples of action and progress as a result of that alignment and collaboration,” he concluded.

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