2023-11-20 13:48:21
Climate change is burdening countries around the world as they strive to find sustainable solutions and meet the net-zero carbon emissions mandate, and financing is the most prominent challenge they face, but maximizing the role of women and technology may contribute to the solution.
Recently, the role of women in combating climate change and providing solutions has increased in the climate technology sector, which is considered the main driver in enhancing momentum and accelerating efforts made, to be in line with the requirements and recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which calls for reducing emissions by 43 percent by 2030.
The contributions of climate technology companies vary to cover several sectors such as energy, transportation, agriculture, iron and steel, and alternative energy, in addition to green hydrogen production and the development of food waste and alternative food technologies.
Yahya Anouti, Partner at Strategy& and Head of the Sustainability Platform at PwC, said, “The Middle East region is paying attention to investing in climate technologies, whether in the region or through acquisitions of companies outside it, despite the decline in investments at the global level.” global impact as a result of the economic slowdown,” stressing that the rate of women’s initiative to establish climate technology companies in the Middle East is constantly rising.
Modest investments
“The volume of investment in climate technology in the Middle East is only five percent of total investments, compared to 12 percent globally,” says Dina El-Shenoufy, chief investment officer at Flat6 Lab, which is one of the most active venture capital funds in Egypt and the Gulf. .
Al-Shanoufi stressed that financial technology companies in the region need, in addition to funding, support policies for emerging companies at all stages and classifications, and the provision of incentives such as experimental laboratories for emerging technologies, technical and technical support, and the right to access information to provide the necessary data to develop favorable solutions.
She said, “Arab youth have sufficient energy and potential for creativity, but they have become afraid to engage in experiments with modest economic feasibility, which may lead to exposure to the risk of bankruptcy.”
Limited variety
Basima Abdel Rahman, founder and CEO of KESK, which specializes in renewable energy solutions in Iraq, pointed out that investors have lost the appetite to invest in climate technology as they are still economically modest emerging companies, calling for the need to provide more awareness and empowerment for this sector.
She stressed that each geographical region has its own solutions. It is not possible to apply solutions imported from abroad that do not fit the real needs of climate crises in the Middle East, such as water and soil pollution and desertification, for example.
As for Lina Al-Alimi, who is working to use her creative cash prizes to create Symbaiosys, the first Arab platform for collecting data on projects related to nature, she said, “Everything that nature provides for free, from carbon removal, air purification, flood protection, and others, is worth more than 140 trillion dollars.” “It exceeds the total output of the world’s economies combined, and yet the value of the financing gap for nature projects is still around four trillion dollars.”
An essential role for women
The diversity of projects and initiatives has become in need of the necessary funding injection to reach a broad, comprehensive application of sustainability and cover all segments of society, especially those most vulnerable to climate change, such as children and women.
Anouti believes that women have a leadership role in directing the fight once morest climate change, as the percentage of women pioneers in establishing climate technology companies in the Middle East has reached 30 percent, which Al-Shanoufi considers to be still small, calling for efforts to increase these contributions.
Al-Alimi believes that more efforts are required to develop plans and incentives that support women and stimulate their participation in climate diplomacy and decision-making to achieve sustainability goals.
The Middle East remains facing a fundamental challenge, which is strengthening women’s leadership to bridge the persistent gap in gender equality, as the parity rate in reducing the gap did not exceed 62.6 percent, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023 of the World Economic Forum.
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