In an official statement on Thursday, the Cabinet said Mabdouly met with the ESCWA’s Executive Secretary, Rola Dashti, in Cairo to discuss the COP27 and several initiatives by the UN body on climate action.

Egypt has been speeding up its transition to a green economy while also preparing to host the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh next November. 

In November 2021, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on developed countries during a speech delivered to the COP26 in Glasgow to fulfill their pledge to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries to address the effects of climate change, highlighting the need to allocate at least half of all public climate finance to adaptation measures.
 
Madbouly expressed the importance of the COP27 concluding in a way that bolsters Egypt’s leadership in the vital issue and backs international efforts to face climate change.

He also praised the cooperation between Egypt and the ESCWA in preparing a report titled ‘Financing for Development’, the first of its kind at the national level. 

The report aims to assess the state of financing for development in Arab states to determine a sustainable financing mechanism in the future.

During the meeting, Dashti presented several initiatives by the ESCWA that Cairo could cooperate in, including the ‘Social Expenditure Monitor’, which aims to create a tool that backs governments in rationalising expenditure components and boosting sustainable development.

On climate, she expressed the ESCWA’s keenness on coordinating with other UN bodies to present all possible means of support in hosting the COP27, including substantive and technical support. 

She added that several climate initiatives will be presented to the Egyptian government in the upcoming period to discuss potential applications to accomplish the state’s vision. 

Furthermore, she presented the commission’s ‘Climate/SDGs Debt Swap Initiative’, which aims to support member states in their struggle with climate finance, high debt burdens, and fiscal pressures that have been exacerbated by the adverse impact of the pandemic, according to the commission’s website. 

Also on Wednesday, Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and COP27 President-Designate Sameh Shoukry and UN Framework Convention on Climate Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa agreed in a telephone call to continue preparations for the conference and to boost international efforts in facing climate change, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Egyptian top diplomat noted that Egypt intends to build on what was achieved during the COP26 in Glasgow and to use the current rising international momentum to confront climate change, moving from the stage of making pledges to actual action on the ground, whether in reducing emissions or financing climate-oriented projects in developing African countries.