UfM explores further partnerships for sustainable climate finance

4 May 2021. The UfM Secretary General, Nasser Kamel, held an online meeting with PEGASUS founder, chairman & CEO, Craig Cogut, and with Christophe Nuttall, the Executive Director of R20, a not-for-profit international organization that works to create inclusive, resilient, and low-carbon societies by accelerating sub-national infrastructure investments in the green economy with the goal of contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Following the development of the Global “Subnational Climate Fund” (SCF), recently approved by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and in accordance with the UfM-R20 cooperation agreement, it has been decided that a similar SCF fund should be developed to be exclusively focused on the Mediterranean Basin for UfM and GCF eligible countries. It would target sectors and geographical areas complementary to the SCF-Global fund in the region, therefore giving special attention to coastal areas and with a significant adaptation component.

Mr. Cogut was one of the leaders participating at GCF’s events prior to the World Leaders Summit organised by President Biden. In that context, the SCF-Global was showcased in a GCF document with “Mediterranean” as one of the regions participating. This might seem minor information, but it reflects in fact a significant change, as usually “MENA” is used by global organisations.

The SG celebrated the fact that important players such as the USA Administration and the French President are now looking at the Mediterranean as a single region in terms of climate action, and he expressed his excitement about Mr. Cogut’s reiterated full support for the replication of the SCF program on a Mediterranean scale.

In view of the UfM Ministerial Conference on Environment and Climate Action and the upcoming international summits on Climate this year, ways of giving visibility to this great initiative were agreed.