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Egypt urges developed countries to fulfil $100bn climate finance pledge

September 6, 2023 at 8:51 am

Egypt’s prime minister Mostafa Madbouly in Shanghai on 5 November 2018 [ALY SONG/AFP/Getty Images]

Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, has urged developed countries to fulfil a 2009 pledge and provide $100 billion to developing countries to meet climate action goals, Anadolu news agency reported.

Speaking at the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in Kenya, Madbouly said: “We look forward to the climate conference in the UAE representing a breakthrough in implementing the developed countries’ pledge to provide $100 billion annually in climate financing, which has not been realised even though it is nothing more than a symbolic commitment to responsibility.”

At COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries agreed that at least $100 billion a year – from both public and private sources – would be given to developing nations from 2020 onwards. To date, only 20 per cent of the $100 billion goal has materialised, according to the United Nations, with the pledge set to expire by 2025.

The UAE will host the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), in Expo City, Dubai, in November.

Madbouly said the African Climate Summit “comes at a time when our world, and especially our African continent, is witnessing an increase in the pace and severity of the negative consequences associated with climate change.”

The continent is witnessing droughts in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel region, forest fires in the Maghreb, deadly hurricanes in southern Africa, an increase in ocean temperatures and a rise in sea levels on the shores of Egypt and the Mediterranean African countries.

He pointed out that Egypt has reached about 20 per cent of its energy production from renewable sources, adding the country is currently making efforts and investments to reach 42 per cent by 2030.

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