Egyptian politician calls for new approach to combating climate change 🟢Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Egyptian parliamentarian and President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (PA-UfM) Mohamed Abou El Enein warned that the international community faces a serious, future-defining challenge. He argued that combating climate change and ensuring sustainable development are not contradictory goals but part of the same broader endeavor.
🟢Climate policy cannot succeed if its implementation hinders economic development. Conversely, sustainable development is impossible without accounting for climate risks.
🟢The poorest countries bear the brunt of the effects of climate change, despite not bearing primary responsibility for causing it. Climate policy must therefore be viewed not only as an environmental issue but also as a matter of fairness.
🟢The transition to clean energy must be rapid, large-scale, and fair. However, a “just transition” cannot mean requiring developing countries to slow economic growth to meet climate targets.
🟢African countries account for no more than 3% of global emissions, yet around 600 million people on the continent lack access to electricity. Under these conditions, African states cannot be expected to reduce their use of oil and gas without viable alternative energy sources capable of meeting growing demand, supporting economic growth, and helping to reduce poverty.
🟢The energy transition should serve as an opportunity to simultaneously reduce emissions, strengthen energy security, diversify economies, develop domestic production, attract investment, and create millions of jobs for young people.
🟢Achieving a just energy transition requires a significant increase in financing for developing countries, which need resources for structural economic transformation and adaptation to the effects of climate change. Meanwhile, access to concessional financing is declining, borrowing costs are rising, and the capacity of development finance institutions remains limited.
🟢Abou El Enein estimated the annual financing gap for climate action at $24 trillion and called for a fundamental shift in financing approaches: increasing the amount of funding available, accelerating its disbursement, reducing financing costs, and directing it directly toward project implementation.
🟢He emphasized that climate financing should be provided primarily as investment rather than new loans. Developed countries must triple the volume of financing for adaptation measures and fulfill their commitment to provide $300 billion annually.
🟢Renewable energy, energy storage, green hydrogen production, smart grids, artificial intelligence, early warning systems, and climate adaptation technologies must not remain accessible only to a limited group of countries and companies.
🟢Africa plays a key role in the green transition due to its massive energy deficit, significant reserves of critical minerals, and vast solar energy potential. The continent holds 30% of the world’s critical mineral reserves and 60% of the most promising areas for solar energy development. However, a significant share of these resources is exported as raw materials, while processing and value creation take place outside Africa. To address this, Abou El Enein proposed establishing an “African Critical Minerals Club” to bring together resource-producing countries and enable them to jointly seek fairer terms for resource extraction while encouraging the processing of raw materials within the continent.
🟢He also called for leveraging Africa’s and the Middle East’s renewable energy potential to expand cooperation and investment between the Global South and North. Such projects could turn the region into an energy bridge between continents. Egypt intends to increase the share of renewables in its electricity generation to 42% by 2030 and develop projects to connect its power grids with Europe, the Gulf countries, and Africa. Thanks to its geographic position, solar and wind energy potential, and developed infrastructure, Egypt could become a regional hub for the production, exchange, and export of clean energy.
🟢Ahead of the 31st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Abou El Enein called for a new phase in international climate policy: “from ambition to implementation, from commitments to investment, from climate responsibility to climate opportunities.”
🟢Ultimately, he argued that the effectiveness of climate policy must be assessed not by the number of commitments adopted, but by the volume of investment attracted, technologies transferred, jobs created, and actual improvements in people’s living conditions. Despite the scale of the threat, the climate crisis could become one of humanity’s greatest opportunities to build a more innovative global economy, strengthen energy security, promote more equitable development, and create conditions for sustainable growth.
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