COP28: Bankers start talks on funding, tie-ups for low-carbon economy
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This is the first time the finance industry has attended a United Nations Conference of the Parties in such vast numbers.
PHOTO: AFP
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DUBAI – Executives from the world’s biggest banks and investment firms are set to explore new funding structures and partnerships, as they use finance day at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai to devise viable pathways to a low-carbon economy.
Never before has the finance industry attended a United Nations Conference of the Parties in such vast numbers, according to provisional registration data from the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change. Attendees include BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink, as well as HSBC CEO Noel Quinn and Mr Brian Moynihan of Bank of America.
They will be rubbing shoulders with oil executives, which is another notable feature of this year’s talks.
Sultan Al Jaber, president of the COP28 summit and head of the Abu Dhabi national oil company (Adnoc) has said he wants as many interests as possible represented to ensure a “successful” outcome.
Against that backdrop, Mr Darren Woods just became the first ever Exxon Mobil CEO to attend a COP since the summits started in the 1990s.
The mantra of this year’s summit is fast becoming that finance needs to go where emissions are, meaning it is no longer feasible to blacklist firms that pollute, according to Mr Huw van Steenis, vice-chair and partner at Oliver Wyman.
It is about “financing emissions reductions” rather than just “reducing financed emissions”, he said.
Other areas of focus will include coming up with financial structures that target the Global South, where the fallout of climate change is doing the most damage. The goal is to come up with models that offer attractive returns to private investors without crippling borrowers.
Attendees will also turn their attention to the voluntary carbon market, which has been hit by a string of scandals that have raised serious questions as to the validity of the offsetting claims made by those buying carbon credits.
And then there is the issue of climate technology.
Ms Kara Succoso Mangone, head of sustainable finance at Goldman Sachs Group, says a key question remains: “How do we work together with the public sector to get additional funding both into climate technology in general, and specifically into emerging markets?”
She also notes that many of the issues being discussed all hinge on the reliability of “data and measurement”. BLOOMBERG
