COP28 sets agenda for $100 billion fund and pushes for ‘low carbon’ technology.

The incoming chairman of the UN COP28 climate summit has set an agenda to ‘supercharge’ global climate finance and finally reach the $100 billion pledged to help the poorest countries adapt to climate change, a goal he it eluded its predecessors.

Sultan Al Jaber, the president-designate of COP28 and head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, told the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin on Tuesday that the “mobilization” of private finance and the reform of international financial institutions was a priority.

He also remained focused on developing technologies to reduce emissions, rather than phasing out fossil fuel production.

“In a pragmatic, just and well-managed energy transition, we need to be laser focused on phasing out fossil fuel emissions, while phasing in viable and affordable zero-carbon alternatives,” he said.

Jaber has been on a “listening tour” since his appointment in January and in recent weeks, he met with climate leaders and ambassadors in China, the United States and Paris. She noted that “expectations are high, trust is low.”

“We need to supercharge climate finance, making it more available, more accessible and more affordable to drive delivery across all climate column,” he said. “The public, multilateral and private sectors need to be mobilized in new and innovative ways on the critical issue of climate finance.”

His efforts have been praised by Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, who has driven reform of the World Bank and multilateral development banks which will also be the focus of a summit in Paris next month, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron

Speaking on video, Mottley told an audience in Berlin that Jaber’s efforts to build consensus were essential in providing a “game changer for the world” at the COP28 summit in Dubai. You said that access to finance for developing countries must be accompanied by access to technology and growth opportunities.

Mottley has proposed three “uncomplicated” ways to raise finance to help poorer nations cope with climate change and finance growth, including a tax on oil and gas company revenues, plus a $200 carbon tax. 100 a ton on shipments and a stamp duty on finance transactions.

Of the $100 billion adaptation fund promised to the UN summit in Copenhagen 14 years ago, developed countries had raised just $83.3 billion by the 2020 target date, according to the OECD.

More than 40 countries sent representatives to the two-day conference in Berlin, which was also attended by US climate envoy John Kerry and German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Germany is behind schedule on its pledge to contribute €6 billion a year by 2025. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told delegates that, following a meeting of donor countries on Monday, she believed the target of 100 billion dollars could be reached this year.

The slow pace of contributions from rich countries has remained a sticking point in the UN climate policy negotiations.

“This is stalling progress and as part of my commitment, I ask donor countries to provide a final assessment on the fulfillment of this commitment before COP28. It’s critical,” Jaber said, adding that “the real value of this commitment has eroded over time.”

The UAE-hosted COP28 summit in December has been dubbed a “global stocktake,” when countries will provide an assessment of their progress in meeting emissions cuts set out in the Paris Agreement. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have agreed to limit the increase in global temperature to well below 2°C and ideally 1.5°C.

At last year’s climate conference in Egypt, oil-producing countries led the push against efforts to phase out all fossil fuels, the main greenhouse gas contributor behind global warming.

But Jaber was adamant in his speech in Berlin that reducing emissions would be achieved by offering more “zero-carbon alternatives.”

This is in line with his focus on ways to cut emissions such as carbon capture technology, rather than reducing fossil fuel production, which has drawn criticism from many climate change experts.

Alex Scott, climate diplomacy and geopolitics program leader at E3G, the consultancy, said the talks in Berlin were “an opportunity for the UAE to address the criticisms it has faced and begin to define a really ambitious agenda for what countries should be preparing to bring to COP28”.