After Destroying COP Credibility, Summit Host UAE Mutters About Lotsa Money For "Clean" Energy
Ed. - Politico (sorry!) reporting on off-the-record rumors, so . . .
The United Arab Emirates is considering creating a multibillion-dollar fund to spur clean energy investments across the world that it plans to unveil at this year’s U.N. climate talks in Dubai, according to people familiar with the plan. The fund could amount to tens of billions of dollars, with a sizable slice of the money coming from the UAE’s sovereign wealth reserves, according to seven people with knowledge of the discussions. A G-7 government official said envoys from the oil-rich Mideast nation had privately mentioned the idea of a fund of at least $25 billion. “It’s an eye-popping figure,” one of the people familiar with the concept said.
Creation of the fund would be one of the largest ever state-sponsored financial efforts to help countries fight climate change. And it comes as the UAE and Sultan al-Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. who is leading the climate talks, have drawn criticism from environmental advocates and some U.S. and European lawmakers for hosting the international gathering despite being one of the world’s largest contributors of greenhouse gases.
EDIT
The people POLITICO spoke to regarding the fund were granted anonymity to discuss the confidential matter. The UAE team organizing the climate summit declined to comment. While its exact design is not settled, one person who had seen the UAE’s plan described the initiative as an investment fund to develop climate transition projects around the globe, ranging from greener cement-making to clean energy to electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
The person said the goal of the fund was to help attract massive amounts of private capital to climate-friendly initiatives. Previous programs were seen as too scattered and too small to realign the broader financial sector to invest in reaching governments’ net-zero goals. But the focus of the fund on making investments at market rates risks creating tensions with wealthy governments in the U.S. and Europe, which expect the UAE to join their club of donors, and the world poorest countries, which may find themselves unable to compete for financing for their own projects.
EDIT
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/18/united-arab-emirates-eye-popping-climate-fund-00111736
