Trillions of dollars needed to meet climate target: UAE

Dr Sultan Bin Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and COP28 President-Designate has called on governments, industry, and all stakeholders to “disrupt business as usual” and take decisive action to tackle the climate crisis.

Speaking at the Ministerial on Climate Action in Brussels, convened by the environment ministers of the European Union, Canada, and China, Dr Al Jaber said it was time to challenge financial models built for the last century and break down silos in industries and governments that slow down progress to a low carbon economy.

“We are at the midway point between Paris and 2030, but we are nowhere near close enough to our destination. We have to face facts. The incremental steps taken so far to address the climate crisis are not meeting the urgency of the moment,” he said.

“Today I am calling on all of us to disrupt business as usual, unite around decisive action and achieve game-changing results.”

Separately, Dr Al Jaber has participated in high-level discussions on climate finance with US President Joe Biden and H.M King Charles III, alongside leading investors and philanthropists, in a visit to the UK to advance innovative climate finance to deliver climate action and a just energy transition.

During his visit, Dr Al Jaber attended a forum on Climate Finance Mobilisation convened by the UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Rt Hon. Grant Shapps MP and the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry.

Dr Al Jaber encouraged all parties to set their ambitions high ahead of COP28 and continue to galvanise UK and US-based businesses and philanthropists to do the same.

Dr Al Jaber said, “The leadership of the US and UK is crucial to both fulfil climate finance pledges and mobilise further capital. We must deliver on the $100b of annual climate finance promised in 2009, and I have been encouraged by recent assurances that this pledge will be fulfilled.

However, we need to mobilise trillions, not billions, of dollars if we are to reach our climate, biodiversity and SDG targets. Describing the central purpose of his plan, Dr Al Jaber said, “This plan is guided by a single north star. And that is keeping 1.5 within reach. To do this, we aim to match the highest ambition for the negotiated outcomes with an equally strong and robust action agenda that can implement those outcomes in the real world.”

Dr Al Jaber detailed the key elements of a four-pillar plan that is based on conclusions drawn from a six month global listening and engagement tour with governments, businesses, civil society, NGOs, activists, young people and Indigenous Peoples.

The plan focuses on fast-tracking the transition, fixing climate finance, focusing on adaptation to protect lives and livelihoods, and underpinning everything with full inclusivity.

On fast-tracking the transition, Dr Al Jaber emphasised the need to take an integrated approach that considers supply and demand at the same time. “As I’ve said many times, the phase down of fossil fuels is inevitable.

It is in fact essential. And it must also be responsible. We must take a holistic approach that brings together both the supply and the demand side in an integrated response. Let us end the reductive discussion of scope 1 versus scope 2 versus scope 3. We need to attack all emissions, everywhere. 1, 2 AND 3,” Dr Al Jaber said.

“This will require us to redesign the relationship between policymakers, the biggest energy producers and the biggest industrial consumers. That is why I will convene the IEA, together with the UNFCCC and IRENA on integrated dialogues including governments, major energy producers and heavy emitting industries. We will co-create a practical action plan, based on the science, around pathways consistent with keeping 1.5 within reach.”

The transition plan calls for a tripling of renewable energy production and a doubling of hydrogen production by 2030 and urges oil and gas companies to diversify into clean energies.

The COP President-Designate called on countries to update their Nationally Determined Contributions ahead of COP28, to ensure alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement. “We need to use every emission-busting tool available, including nuclear, battery storage and carbon capture and removal technologies, especially for the hardest to abate sectors,” the President-Designate said.

WAM