COP28 Director-General and Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi (Contributed photo)
SAO PAULO – Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi, COP28 Director-General, has called on key finance stakeholders to strengthen cooperation on climate finance.
During his recent visit in Brazil, Al Suwaidi highlighted the Global Climate Finance Framework, launched and endorsed by key world leaders at COP28, to make climate finance available, accessible and affordable.
Al Suwaidi participated in a series of high-level dialogues at the Climate Finance Forum in São Paulo held on the sidelines of the first G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting under Brazil’s G20 Presidency.
He also held productive meetings with philanthropies, finance ministers, officials from international financial institutions, and other financial leaders, as he emphasized the critical importance of finance in enabling climate action.
“A key focus of the COP28 Presidency’s Action Agenda is how we can move the needle on climate finance to make it more available, accessible and affordable for all, and remove barriers impeding investment, especially into the Global South,” Al Suwaidi said.
“It shouldn’t be that 86 percent of total climate finance in Africa is from public finance, while in North America it is just four percent – we need to change the narrative on climate finance and show that it represents an unprecedented business opportunity,” he added.
The COP28 official participated in an official G20 side-event organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on financing climate and development, highlighting the Global Climate Finance Framework launched at COP28, and the importance of the first ever COP Presidencies Troika in achieving the goal of 1.5°C within reach.
Central to realizing this ambition was the launch of the COP Presidencies Troika, formally launched last month, uniting COP28 with Azerbaijan and Brazil’s upcoming COP Presidencies, will foster international cooperation and drive ambitious collective climate action.
“Brazil has already shown tremendous support for the UAE’s COP Presidency and Action Agenda,” Al Suwaidi said, “Our two countries’ commitment to working together represents a significant move towards integrated nature-climate action and creating the Troika between the COP Presidencies of UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil will be critical in driving our joint efforts for climate action in pursuit of 1.5°C.”
Al Suwaidi, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of ALTÉRRA, the world’s largest private climate investment fund, called for greater mobilization of private climate finance through innovative solutions and approaches.
ALTÉRRA was launched at COP28 with a USD30 billion commitment from the UAE, with the goal of mobilizing USD250 billion by the end of this decade.
“The challenges we face to tackle the climate crisis are too big for any single government, company or capital source to tackle alone – we need collaboration and coalitions,” Al Suwaidi said. “ALTÉRRA sees innovative approaches and partnerships as integral to delivering the impact we want to see and to deploy the scale of capital we want to mobilize.”
While participating in a roundtable with global and local investors, Suwaidi noted the immense opportunities to collaborate and partner with Brazil on climate.
“ALTÉRRA and the UAE want to invest in the future, we see Brazil as a key player in that green future,” he said. (PR)
