During the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), leaders focused on the growing opportunities for sovereign wealth funds, development banks and pension funds to view the new energy industry as a growth opportunity, especially in developing economies.
The discussion was hosted by Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change and CEO of Masdar, and Gregory Barker MP, UK energy and climate change minister.
“This is an important agenda. Not just for the environment but for business,” Greg Barker, UK energy and climate change minister, said.
“The opportunities for the global, low-carbon economy are huge and growing at an exponential rate. Clean energy and a range of resource efficient projects can expect growing interest in attracting investment as new financial participants’ crowd into this fast developing market.
“The meeting today helped to lay a foundation to better identify concrete areas of opportunity for investment in developing economies and ideas on how to scale up finance for climate solutions,” Barker, added.
“This joint dialogue between the private and public sectors is absolutely vital and the UK and the UAE are working together to drive this agenda forward. I look forward to continuing this collaboration.”
A number of ideas emerged, including contract structures for power pricing, possible dimensions for the Basel rules on finance, and ways in which finance is securitized. Participants agreed to take the discussion forward and establish a working group to explore the suggested proposals more deeply.
“Increased collaboration and institutional investment are critical in diversifying the global energy mix and addressing climate change,” Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, said.
“The realities of climate change should be viewed as an economic opportunity. The UAE is investing in the future of energy by working with investment partners and governments, like the United Kingdom, to build sophisticated, large-scale renewable energy projects that showcase the economic returns, and environmental benefits, of addressing these pressing issues.”
Uniting more than 30,000 participants from 150 countries, ADSW gathered leaders from academia, industry and government to tackle the business, technology and financial challenges required for sustainable development and renewable energy adoption.
Senior representatives from several financial institutions and energy investors participated in the roundtable, including the European Investment Bank, International Finance Corporation, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, BNY Mellon Corporate Trust, African Development Bank, Mubadala Development Company, Citi Corporate and Investment Banking, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, UK Green Investment Bank, Gulf Investment Corporation, World Bank and others.