Dear Excellencies, distinguished guests

It is an honor to be joining you today in this UNDP co-hosted side event on the margins of the Financing for Development Forum. This is an important follow up to the launch of the "Friends of Greening National Investment Plans" initiative, which we jointly launched with Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development during the COP27 conference last November.

Recent global events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, rising food and fuel prices, supply chain disruptions, the impacts of the war in Ukraine, and adverse impacts of climate change have underscored the interconnectedness of our economies and the urgent need to build forward in a greener and more inclusive manner. 

Importantly, there are growing calls to accelerate the transition to net-zero carbon economies, build climate resilience, and enhance biodiversity.

Every country's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) offers a unique roadmap for immediate climate action, and enhanced NDCs bridge the gap between national climate commitments and tangible actions. 

Adaptation to climate change should be a top priority, particularly for African and developing countries, but it remains underfunded.

According to UNEP, African countries require 3 trillion USD by 2030 to implement their NDCs. 

To meet Africa and developing countries’ growing energy demands and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, there must be a significant shift in policy and financing. 

Investing in climate action makes sound economic sense and encourages sustainable development. Climate-smart agriculture has the potential to achieve a triple-win of increased productivity, enhanced resilience, and reduced emissions.

UNDP has pioneered development finance tools in climate change. These include Climate Budget Tagging, Climate Change Financing Frameworks, Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Reviews, and working with Parliamentary Standing Committees to strengthen oversight of climate budgets. UNDP also supports development finance and bio-diversity efforts through the BIO-FIN program. 

Similarly, UNDP's tax for the SDGs project aims to help countries align tax policies and administration with SDGs. In this program, not only revenue mobilisation efforts for increasing investments in SDGs are being undertaken, but also tax code and tax expenditures (exemptions and concessions) are being reviewed to align with the SDGs. 

Additionally, to enhance financing for climate, nature and environment, UNDP supports climate change bonds, and debt to nature swaps. 

As 75% of the world's poor rely on agriculture for survival, the UNDP is expanding its support for countries to set up and strengthen policy and institutional enabling actions and systems for NDC coordination and implementation. 

UNDP has also released a guidance note for governments to integrate climate change into budgeting, which is a key aspect of the integration process.

The initiative “‘Greening National Investment Plans in Africa and Developing Countries’,” launched by Egypt at COP27 with UNDP support is critical as it provides a much-needed platform for countries to share their experiences and promote best practices for increasing the share of green projects in their national investment plans. It is necessary to ensure that adequate public resources are allocated to climate-sensitive projects to facilitate the implementation of NDCs.

Integrating green standards and markers in economic sectors, plans, and projects is essential to support investment planning and selection. It is also a simple signal to make it easy and reliable for lenders, foreign and domestic investors to align on green national projects.

Creating an enabling environment and encouraging the private sector's transition into green and climate-sensitive economies through Public-Private-Partnerships is yet another important policy area.

Additionally, facilitating access to innovative financial tools such as green bonds, equities, and climate debt swaps, different funds including loss and damage fund, IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust Fund can provide necessary financing. 

The Government of Egypt has already taken significant steps in greening its national investment plan, setting inspiring and realizable targets to green its public investments by 50% by 2023/2024. 

It is also essential to encourage and facilitate access to various tools for the private sector to assess environmental impact and promote environmental good governance, including ESG criteria. 

UNDP was proud to support some of these efforts over the past years. Egypt's experience in advancing this transition can be shared with other African and developing countries.

With the right support and initiative, change is possible, and we CAN accelerate the transition to greener and more inclusive economies. 

Thank you.