Mahmoud Mohieldin calls for innovative blended climate finance during India visit

In preparation for COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27, emphasized the necessity of innovative mechanisms for environmental projects with hybrid finance from public and private sources, as well as enhanced roles for non-state actors.

At the event, moderated by Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Dr. Mohieldin also emphasized that a holistic approach that balances mitigation, adaptation and loss & damage is needed to fight the impacts and causes of climate change. This is so all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including equal access to food, clean water and clean energy, can be sufficiently addressed, he underlined.

In this respect, developed economies’ pledge in Copenhagen of USD $100 billion in climate finance a year should be re-quantified and scaled up to match the evolving needs of climate action in developing countries, Dr. Mohieldin has said. Commitments while still only a fraction — 3% — of what is needed, can nontheless be viewed as a token of renewed commitments to fight climate breakdown, he said.

During his visit to New Delhi, Dr. Mohieldin met with Mr. Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West) of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Mr. Alok Kumar, Secretary (Power) of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), and Mrs. Richa Sharma, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC).

In his meetings with Indian officials, Dr. Mohieldin also engaged in detailed exchanges with Mr. Amit Prothi, Director General of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), and Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri, Distinguished Fellow at the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), where India’s experience in combating climate change was discussed.