Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin: Africa is most affected by climate change

Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt, has said that Africa is one of the most affected continents by the impacts of climate change despite its very little contribution to GHGs. However, African countries showed a big determination to face this phenomenon.

Mohieldin added, in his speech to the Climate Financing Summit, that Africans see in facing climate change challenges a chance to save the plane t and themselves, emphasizing that Africa’s efforts should focus more on adaptation.

He explained that African efforts to reduce emissions focused mainly on the transportation sector, referring to some reports that anticipate 10% annual growth in the Electric Buses market in Africa until 2025.

Mohieldin said that Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa already started operating electric buses as public transportation in the last couple of years, while in this year, Kenya presented the first electric bus designed and manufactured in Africa through a Kenyan – Swedish company.

The climate champion praised these positive measures by Africa that help in the transportation sector transition to clean energy.

Mohieldin addressed the participants in Climate Financing Summit underscoring the importance of catalysing efforts to turn commitments and pledges into tangible projects that help face climate change effectively.

He said that insufficient financing of climate projects worldwide requires finding innovative tools and ways of financing, especially in developing countries and emerging economies.

He underlined, in this context, the importance of the blended finance as a good and effective tool that attracts commercial capital to sustainable development projects including climate ones, explaining that with this tool in hand, the next step is to choose the most effective climate projects and to enhance the participation of different countries either those who have the finance capacity or those who have the capacity of implementation.