COP28 Prez calls on MDBs to work faster to address climate finance

Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and COP28 President, told the presidents of the world's biggest development banks that "we need more ambition; we need trillions, not billions," to fix climate finance.

Speaking at a virtual meeting attended by the presidents of nine multilateral development banks (MDBS) and the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Al Jaber said, "Addressing climate finance is a cornerstone of the COP28 Action Agenda."

Dr. Al Jaber told the MDBs they have already made "good progress" on reform, including an endorsement by shareholders of a new vision for the World Bank: to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet.

But with less than a month until the start of COP28, now was the time to show "more ambition; we need trillions, not billions. We are pushing shareholders to adequately recapitalise MDBs, but we also need MDBs to do better," Al Jaber said.

The COP28 President outlined his main requests for MDBs ahead of COP28. He said, "I have three requests for you: MDBs must work through country platforms, revise climate finance targets for coming years, and lower the risk for the private sector. MDBs must play a key role in laying the foundations for a new framework on climate finance."

Speaking a day after Pre-COP, which was the largest to date and was attended by over 70 ministers and 100 country delegates, Dr. Al Jaber aligned with growing calls for reform. These calls include the Nairobi Declaration, launched at Africa Climate Week in September, which called for a Global Charter on Climate Finance by 2025.

Al Jaber said that shifting MDB financing away from a project-by-project approach and onto country platforms was key to his presidency's plans to improve access to climate finance, ensuring it was accessible, affordable and available.

"For this new vision to become reality, we need MDBs to work better together as a system, particularly via country platforms," Al Jaber said.

"I now ask you to come to COP with a strong joint announcement on country platforms and demonstrate the commitment to working together," Al Jaber told the bank heads.

The COP28 President also asked MDBs "to come to COP with revised, more ambitious joint-climate finance targets for the coming years, particularly for adaptation - reflecting the ambition required."

"There is a critical need for MDBs to increase their adaptation finance - and scale up climate finance to cover sectors such as food, water, health, nature and biodiversity," the COP28 President said.

"MDBs must also step up on private finance mobilisation with targets and methodologies to mobilise private finance, particularly for mitigation," he added.

The IMF will also "have a crucial role in the delivery of climate finance," Dr. Al Jaber said, and must show "good progress" at COP28 on the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) and support the rechanneling of special drawing rights (SDRs) to MDBs.

The COP28 President also called for the convening of a forum next year to assess progress on the MDB reform agenda. "In business, I have learned that measuring progress is essential to making progress," he said.

Al Jaber invited the MDB presidents to a high-level event on Finance Day at COP28 on international financial institution reform and commended them on their support so far.

"Today, you have demonstrated that together, through joint MDB action, we can lay the foundation of a climate finance architecture that is more fit-for-purpose to address climate and development," he said.

The meeting was attended by Ajay Banga, World Bank President, Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the IMF as well as Dilma Roussef, President of the New Development Bank (NDB) and former President of Brazil. Other attendees included the Presidents of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).