I am pleased to share an outstanding Day Two at the Inaugural COP28 Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum in the Green Zone at COP28, themed ‘Making Sustainability the Growth Story of Our Time’. I thoroughly enjoyed the Opening Session keynote with Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF), with whom I had the pleasure of speaking prior to the session having previously met and engaged with Ms Georgieva during her time as President of the World Bank. Her Keynote address, ‘Building Pathways to Inclusive Green Growth’, shared valuable insights on the macroeconomics of catalysing a just transition to a greener evolution of all our systems, and ensuring economic development occurs in a sustainable and equitable manner with a focus on regions in the Global South.
I was also delighted to attend the panel session, ‘Unleashing the Catalytic Effect of Climate and Nature Philanthropy’, on how catalytic philanthropic funding can generate a multiplier effect on business and government capital towards climate investments and examining the unique attributes of climate and nature philanthropy and how scaling strategic philanthropic capital flows is essential for climate and nature action. The panel was expertly moderated by Rima Al Mokarrab, Chair, Tamkeen, opened by Badr Jafar, Special Representative for Business & Philanthropy, COP28, and welcomed distinguished guest speakers including:
Bill Gates, Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Founder, Breakthrough Energy
Ray Dalio, Founder & CIO Mentor, Bridgewater Associates
Dr. Precious Motsepe, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Motsepe Foundation
HE Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman, Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education
I was also pleased to attend a most informative and excellent session on ‘Indigenous Peoples Direct Access to Finance’, led by HE Razan Al Mubarak, President, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); UN Climate Change High-Level Champion. The session explored one of the most effective ways to protect and restore nature – while reducing emissions and increasing carbon removal – is to empower the communities that already steward the world’s ecosystems: Indigenous Peoples. This event was truly inspirational and highlighted the need for a change in practice to make climate finance fit for purpose for Indigenous Peoples at all levels. The session welcomed as speakers:
Hindou Ibrahim, Chair, International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change
Peter Seligmann, Chief Executive Officer, Nia Tero; Chairman, Conservation International
Dr Grethel Aguilar, Director General, IUCN
I also attended the session on ‘Climate Crisis: Addressing the Humanitarian Agenda’ led by David Miliband, President & Chief Executive Officer, International Rescue Committee; and another outstanding panel on the ‘New Energy Paradigm’ and how the energy sector and heavy emitting industries can work with policy makers to galvanise broad action to advance the just energy transition and reduce emissions, whilst providing accessible energy to support the development of all economies and people. This session welcomed Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, which hosts the WiSER initiative which AIWF is most proud to have a MoU partnership and with which AIWF partnered earlier this year on a landmark conference in London, ‘On the Road to COP28: Women-Led Innovation in Climate, Sustainability & STEM’.
Further information about the Forum is available here: https://bpcforum.org
Dr Haifa Al Kaylani
President & Founder
Arab International Women’s Forum
President & Founder
Arab International Women’s Forum
