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Vera Songwe
Co-Chair, the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance

“The science is clear on climate change. I think what we have noticed in the last five years is an increase in extremes, the weather patterns are changing. The lived experience is also clear. I think from the Canadian fires to the floods in Pakistan to the floods in Italy and the droughts, longest period of droughts in Africa, we know that our climate is changing.”

Maya Hennerkes
Director of Green Financial Systems, Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRD

“We’re not on track. So I think we need to really, really scale it up and we need to speed it up. But I also think we need to be optimistic because there’s no alternative.”

Rania Al-Mashat
Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation

“It’s not up to one government to be able to do it alone, not up to the private sector, to be able to do it alone, not up to multilateral development banks or international financial institutions to do it alone or even citizens to do it alone. We need all hands on deck.”

Reham ElBeltagy
CFO, Orascom Construction

“The target for all of us is to be more efficient, more sustainable, and more safe in terms of energy. And that’s where we’re heading. And that’s the future.”

Greenhouse gas emissions are fueling temperature increases, and there is an urgent need for a global transformation to achieve net zero by the middle of this century. Investment to get there is needed most in developing countries. They need $2.4 trillion every year by 2030. A level of financing which can only be raised by governments, the private sector, development banks and others, all working together.

Vera Songwe
Co-Chair, the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance

“I think the first thing is just realizing that time is against us. The climate is continuously changing. It’s not waiting for us to raise the resources. We have the resources, we need to use them more efficiently. And I think we need to call out, you know, climate change is also global public good. We need a lot more public sector financing.”

Vera Songwe
Co-Chair, the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance

“This is where we need a lot of additional resources because the loss and damage hits mostly the low income developing countries because they have not yet built the infrastructure that will be more climate resilient.”

This is where multilateral development banks like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development can really help.

Maya Hennerkes
Director of Green Financial Systems, Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRD

“I think the way we work is a good blueprint. So our funding model is about one-quarter public sector, three-quarters private sector, and that means that we can really bring in the private sector. For every dollar that we’ve been funding over the last few years, we have brought in approximately two dollars of private sector money. So I think that’s a great way of scaling it up.”

Success depends on a joining of forces, together with high level political commitment. At COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt and its international partners launched the energy pillar of its national green transition platform, known as the Nexus for Water, Food and Energy or NWFE. This country-led initiative aims to decommission 5 gigawatts of inefficient fossil fuel capacity by 2026 and develop 10 gigawatts of private renewable energy by 2028, bringing clean energy to millions of Egyptians. At its core, partnerships between local energy companies, domestic and international lenders and investors, project sponsors, international development partners, multilateral development banks and, most importantly, key national decision-makers.

Rania Al-Mashat
Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation

“The Nexus of Water, Food and Energy, the NWFE platform is derived from the word نُوَفِّــي, which means fulfilling pledges. It is based on Egypt’s national priorities within its 2050 climate country strategy. So the NWFE platform, if I’m describing it in one word, it’s a very practical country example to be able to foster collaboration between development partners to push country-led climate goals.”

The EBRD collaborated with Egypt over several years, fostering the right conditions to attract private sector investment into renewable energy at scale.

Maya Hennerkes
Director of Green Financial Systems, Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRD

“At EBRD, we can help to narrow the funding gap in three ways, I think. First, we work with regulators to help them set the policy environment right for enabling climate friendly investments. Second, we work with funds, for example, the climate funds, to bring in concessional finance to make climate-friendly projects happen. And then third, we obviously as an investor, we also do key investments ourselves, and whenever we do so, we bring in others with us.”

Maya Hennerkes
Director of Green Financial Systems, Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRD

“We bring co-investors in to have higher leverage in those climate-friendly investments.”

As the confidence of investors grew, so did the size of the projects, like the 500 megawatt Gulf of Suez wind farm, jointly funded with the Green Climate Fund, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and private commercial banks. And built, owned and operated by a consortium of companies. It will be the largest wind farm in Africa.

Reham ElBeltagy
CFO, Orascom Construction

“We at Orascom Construction are extremely proud of this project and extremely proud to be part of Egypt’s transition into renewable energy. This project helps put less pollution, it helps employment, it helps moving into more green and efficient energy. Also, at Orascom, we are not only the developer for this project but also the contractor. So we are also training Egyptian workers to construct and operate a green plant with all the health safety practices that is well-known.”

Reham ElBeltagy
CFO, Orascom Construction

“We believe we are making it happen and we are very happy to be part of that.”

The NWFE and Egypt’s commitment to moving faster are already paving the way to mobilizing more finance.

Maya Hennerkes
Director of Green Financial Systems, Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRD

“NWFE is a great example. It’s a country platform and it’s a multi-partner approach. So through NWFE, we can invest in better grids, we invest in capacity building and the upskilling of workers and local and green supply and value chains. This way we can unlock up to $10 billion of private finance, and that’s a 1 to 20 multiplier.”

It’s a model for climate finance which can be replicated elsewhere. It’s critical that the world’s energy systems are transitioned away from fossil fuels, which means shifting to electricity use whenever and wherever possible, and that electricity must be generated from zero carbon sources: the wind and the sun. This goes beyond a moral obligation. It’s also simply, good business. Renewable energy is cheaper, safer and more resilient to external shocks.

Vera Songwe
Co-Chair, the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance

“The simple straight answer for who should pay for any negative externality is a tax on those who are emitting. But it is also a global public good for which many jurisdictions are suffering. And so what we need to do is a collective partnership that comes together to see how quickly and how fast with speed, we can battle the crisis.”

Maya Hennerkes
Director of Green Financial Systems, Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRD

“We have a climate emergency and we need to channel the funding now at a speed and a scale that’s unprecedented. So there’s just no alternative. We have to do it.”