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Rabat – On behalf of the president, Egypt’s environment minister Khaled Fahmy addressed leaders represented in the COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco on Saturday.
Fahmy recognised Morocco’s role in hosting the climate talks for this year and France for its keenness to ensure that Paris Agreement is just and sharing responsibility among all member states.
He also highlighted the importance of technology transfer and capacity building from developed countries to developing ones, in addition to allocating adequate funding targeted upwards to USD 100 bn annually for climate issues.
Egypt has earlier launched the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), in a bid to scale up use of renewable energies in the across Africa. “This initiative explains the ambitions of African continent to the world,” Fahmy said.
He also affirmed Egypt’s commitment to push forward the initiative, referring that Egypt already drafted its national development strategy for 2030 which included climate issues in many of its aspects.
Meanwhile, Fahmy launched the African Forum for Environment Partnership, on the sidelines of the conference, to contribute in organising environment activities across the continent and share expertise with African leaders, the ministry said in an official statement.
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), the AREI would have a considerable impact on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on the continent. It will, however, require huge funding in order to be activated.
“At least $5bn in public and highly concessional financing, between 2016 and 2020, from bilateral, multilateral, and other sources, including the Green Climate Fund, will be needed to leverage a further $15bn in other investments, for a total investment of at least $20bn pre-2020,” the initiative statement read.
