Countries pledge financial support to tackle climate crisis

UAE pledges $200 million in aid to low-income countries

On the first day of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 28), the host country, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), pledged to spend $200 million to help low-income and vulnerable countries improve their resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The pledge was made at the World Climate Action Summit. Earlier, the UAE also made a $200 million aid pledge at a conference in Marrakech, Morocco.

The commitment is made in the form of Special Drawing Rights, through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resilience and Sustainability Trust Fund. This is a trust fund managed by the IMF and provides long-term concessional financing for climate resilience and pandemic preparedness. The RST supports low- and middle-income economies and countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Speaking at the conference, COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber said: “The UAE is pleased to announce our commitment to the IMF Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST). We are committed to supporting those countries and communities that have contributed little to climate change but are most affected by it.”

$30 billion in capital for new climate investment vehicle

The UAE has announced a $30 billion capital commitment to a new climate investment instrument called ALTÉRRA to catalyze international efforts to build a more equitable climate finance system, with a focus on improving access to finance for the global South.

With this $30 billion commitment, ALTÉRRA becomes the world’s largest private investment vehicle for climate action and will mobilize $250 billion globally by 2030. The vehicle aims to leverage private markets for climate investment and focuses on transforming emerging markets and developing economies that lack traditional investors.

Finance for climate action is not available, accessible or affordable when needed. By 2030, emerging markets and developing economies will need $2.4 trillion per year to tackle climate change. That is why COP28 has made climate finance a key pillar of its Action Agenda and has worked to put forward ambitious solutions, including large-scale mobilization of private markets.

Raising $5 billion for action on nature

At COP 28, the Business Climate and Philanthropy Platform, the private sector engagement platform for COP28, announced a series of climate and nature initiatives, pledging to mobilize $5 billion in collective funding. The Green Climate Fund, Allied Climate Partners and Allianz Global Investors will jointly mobilize this money from the public and private sectors with a long-term target of up to $20 billion to advance climate and nature action.

The Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum is the first dedicated platform for the private sector and philanthropy in the COP process. It includes a full-day session in the Blue Zone, focusing on driving innovation and impact in areas including sustainable climate finance, coral reef restoration, green technology, energy and industrial transition, sustainable food systems and empowering small and medium-sized enterprises.

Climate Solutions Investment Platform announces mobilization of sustainable climate finance. Photo: UNFCCC

At the Forum, the President of COP 28 said: “To tackle climate finance, we must harness the knowledge, resources and power of the private sector to ensure the necessary funding reaches those in need, especially in the Global South. COP 28 commits to mobilizing capital from multiple sources to meet the trillions of dollars needed to reduce emissions so that we can all move towards a just and orderly transition.”

In addition, Sequoia Climate Fund President Christie Ulman announced a new $450 million fund to tackle superpollutants, in partnership with the Global Methane Hub and other philanthropic organizations. This funding will help countries incorporate all non-CO2 greenhouse gases into their new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2035 and leverage additional resources to triple climate finance in this category by 2030.

In addition, a methane data campaign also received $100 million in funding to collect data to help develop concrete actions to drive global action on reducing methane emissions.

UAE Climate and Health Statement

In one of the notable activities at the Conference, the COP28 President together with the World Health Organization (WHO) issued the 'UAE COP28 Statement on Climate and Health' to promote actions to protect people's health from the increasing impacts of climate.

Countries and global donors have pledged more than US$777 million to help defeat neglected tropical diseases and improve the lives of 1.6 billion people. Photo: UNFCCC

Signed by 123 countries, the Declaration recognizes the need to protect communities and prepare health care systems to cope with extreme climate-related health impacts such as heat, air pollution and infectious diseases.

At the event, participants acknowledged that finance was a key issue in advancing the declaration. A series of new climate and health finance commitments were made to support these political commitments, including a $300 million commitment from the Global Fund to prepare health systems, $100 million from the Rockefeller Foundation to scale up climate and health solutions, and a £54 million (about $68.5 million) financial commitment from the UK government.

The statement was released ahead of the first Health Day at the COP and joins a series of announcements made during the Climate Action Summit to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century (compared to pre-industrial levels).

$1.7 billion financial commitment for forests and oceans

During the World Climate Action Summit, the COP28 President and partners presented a series of new and ambitious initiatives with an initial $1.7 billion in climate finance to meet both climate and biodiversity goals.

Countries and communities unite to deliver ambitious climate action and accelerate the takeover of the world's forests and oceans. Photo: UNFCCC

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will contribute $100 million in new finance for climate-nature projects, with an initial investment of $30 million in the Ghanaian government's 'Resilient Ghana' plan.
Nature-rich countries in the Pacific and across important forest basins announce conservation and development plans with funding from governments, charities and multilateral development banks.
Leaders stressed the particular importance of investing in the livelihoods and development goals of indigenous peoples and local communities.

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