UAE's Cop28 Business and Philanthropy Forum forges partnerships to drive climate action

The UAE's Cop28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum has forged new global partnerships to explore how the private sector can help bridge the $3 trillion gap in financing required annually to achieve net-zero emissions targets.

The partners include the Sustainable Markets Initiative, International Finance Corporation, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Economic Forum, Asian Development Bank, Africa Finance Corporation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Elon Musk-backed Xprize, the forum said in a statement on Thursday.

The partnerships represent a "a new era of collaborative climate action" guided by the Cop28 agenda, which includes accelerating a just and orderly energy transition, fixing climate finance and ensuring inclusive action.

“Businesses and philanthropists must play leading roles in meeting net zero pathways and delivering sustainable development and through the Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum at Cop28, they will have a platform to do so," said Cop28 President-designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber.

The forum will "help deliver concrete outcomes from the private and philanthropic sectors. We are committed to hosting a fully inclusive Cop, and it would be impossible to do this without the vital input of our business and philanthropy communities”, Dr Al Jaber added.

International business leaders, philanthropists and policymakers from around the world will attended the two-day forum from December 1 to mobilise climate action and advance progress around net zero goals.

The forum – being held alongside the two-week UN climate conference that runs from November 30 to December 12 – is expected to engage more than 500 chief executives and philanthropists on the first day of the event, followed by a full day of discussions on the second day.

"Working together to create a truly inclusive action platform, the forum’s partners will be instrumental in collectively turning our aspirations into actionable outcomes for climate and nature," Badr Jafar, Cop28 special representative for business and philanthropy, said.

"Their broad expertise, resources and unwavering commitment is what is required to harness the true potential of both business and philanthropy, working alongside an enabling policy environment ... towards increasingly urgent climate and nature goals.”

Among the forum's partners, the SMI will help bring together global leaders to align industry, investment and country road maps to showcase the progress achieved, the statement said.

The forum’s partnership with the IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, underscores the development finance sector’s commitment to green investments, it said.

The OECD partnership will help raise international awareness around philanthropy’s contribution to climate adaptation and mitigation.

The Asian Development Bank said it aims to boost the collaboration between philanthropy, business and the public sector in order to enhance climate action across Asia and the Pacific.

The African Finance Corporation seeks to emphasise the importance of climate resilience across particularly vulnerable regions within the Global South and to advance the "often-overlooked natural capital solutions emerging from Africa", Samaila Zubairu, AFC president and chief executive, said.

The World Economic Forum said the partnership will help "to unlock ambition and action for people and planet", its president Borge Brende said.