Jan 23, 2023
As the world looks to a new year of climate action, all eyes turn to the United Arab Emirates, where the UNFCCC Climate Change Conference (COP28) will take place in December. One of the largest climate finance mechanisms in the world, the Climate Investments Funds was in the region to attend the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
CEO Mafalda Duarte’s first order of business was to participate in the 13th Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). She notably joined a ministerial dialogue on the Energy Transition Accelerator Financing platform, where she shared lessons learned from CIF’s 15 years of experience providing concessional funding and opening up markets for clean energy in developing countries.
Then, she held a consultation meeting in partnership with the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) on CIF’s recently launched Industry Decarbonization program. Key industry stakeholders discussed elements of this program designed to take on the challenge of reducing the carbon footprint of high-emitting industries such as iron and steel, cement, chemicals and petrochemicals, aluminum, and pulp and paper.
Finally, the CIF team joined a group of young climate leaders convened by the Arab Youth Council for Climate Change to discuss the Relevance of Green Skills and Green Jobs to Youth. A strong champion of youth climate leadership, CIF’s Senior Operations Officer Dora N. Cudjoe shared an announcement on how youth will soon be able to further engage with CIF cofunded programs through the CIF Youth Fellowship.
