Mohieldin made his remarks Monday at a roundtable in Cairo for the Independent High-level Expert Group on Climate Finance tasked with preparing a report on climate finance.

The report was commissioned by the Egyptian presidency of the upcoming 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) set to be held 6-18 November in Sharm El-Sheikh, as well as the British presidency of last year’s COP26, held in Glasgow.

Mohieldin, who is also UN special envoy on financing the 2030 sustainable development agenda, stressed the need to strengthen the role of the private sector and multilateral development banks. 

He praised the concessional financing policies of the International Development Agency (IDA) as one of the most effective mechanisms for providing financing, adding that they can be expanded through multilateral development banks.

The climate champion also highlighted the importance of activating innovative financing methods, such as debt swaps, in addition to supporting carbon markets.

During the session, Ambassador Wael Abul-Magd, special representative of the COP27 president, stressed the need to attract trillions of dollars to support climate finance, taking into account the priorities of developing countries that suffer from the negative effects of climate change.

On their part, Dr Vera Snungwe and Dr Nick Stern, chairs of the expert group, explained that the report is monitoring the most prominent gaps related to climate financing, identifying their causes and proposing recommendations for mobilising the necessary financing to support climate action.

They also stressed the vital role of multilateral development banks, and development finance institutions as a whole, in participating strongly in creating conditions for investment and also in action to manage, reduce and share risks.

The two chairs of the group indicated their keenness to include the observations and suggestions that were put forward during the meeting in order to develop the draft report.