Moheildin, who is also the UN special envoy on financing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, made his remarks while participating on Monday in a session on the Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda during the Bonn Climate Conference in Germany.

He emphasized that the SAA, which was launched last year at the 27^th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, is meant to address challenges facing implementation of adaptation and resilience activities.

During the Bonn conference, the Egyptian presidency of COP27, high-level climate champions (HLCs) and the Marrakech Partnership launched six task forces to accelerate the implementation of the agenda by focusing on the areas of food systems, water, human settlements, oceans, infrastructure and finance.

Mohieldin noted that the gap in the implementation of adaptation activities is mainly a financing gap that requires mobilizing finance and reducing risks. He pointed out that the contribution of the private sector and businesses is only four percent of the adaptation financing, which is far from the required level.

Mohieldin explained that the $100 billion pledged by developed countries at the 2009 Copenhagen Conference to finance climate action annually in developing countries will contribute to bridging the gap by only three percent if met.

He stated that efforts to double adaptation financing from its level in 2019 to $20-30 billion annually in 2025 are good but not enough to meet the requirements of developing countries.

In order to narrow the gap, the Egyptian presidency of COP27, in cooperation with the UN’s regional economic commissions and the HLCs team, have been working to find investable, bankable and implementable projects through the five regional forums on climate finance.

The first edition of the forums discussed about 400 projects, 70 of which focus on adaptation and resilience.

Mohieldin stressed that the SAA will effectively contribute to bridging the gap between financing and implementing adaptation projects.

He highlighted the importance of scaling the private sector participation in financing and implementing climate action, activating debt reduction mechanisms, debt swaps for investment in nature and climate, voluntary carbon markets, and enhancing the contribution of international financial institutions (IFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs) through adopting more effective policies for concessional financing.

The session witnessed the participation of Director of Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development Department at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and COP27 Presidency Lead Negotiator, Ambassador Mohamed Nasr; HLC for COP28 Razan Al Mubarak; UNFCCC Adaptation Director Youssef Nassef; and the SAA’s six task forces leaders.

The six task forces will work on rallying non-state actors and governments to implement the SAA, identify partnerships needed to deliver on each target, facillitate discussions to inform the baseline and tracking of progress for each of the target. Their activities will contribute to shaping a common narrative for adaptation system transformation as well as the first SAA Implementation Report.