Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and COP28 President-Designate, said today that urgent reform of IFI’s is needed before COP28 begins in November, “to lay the foundation for a successful climate summit.”

Dr. Al Jaber was speaking at the event – “Creating an International Financial Architecture for the Future: Bridgetown 2.0” – organised by Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.

Prime Minister Mottley unveiled the “Bridgetown Initiative” at COP27 last year, which called for fundamental reform of the global financial architecture and preparing the way for a new financial system that drives financial resources toward climate action and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Initiative “has without a doubt placed a focus on the fact that IFIs and MDBs are not keeping pace with the challenges of the 21st century,” Dr. Al Jaber said in his address.

Dr. Al Jaber said, “For developing countries, climate finance is nowhere near available, affordable, or accessible enough. Even when funds are allocated, they get held up in bureaucratic red tape and don’t get to where they need to go. And as a result, both climate and development goals are at risk.

“If the world does not come up with effective mechanisms to deliver climate finance to developing and emerging economies, they will have no choice but to choose a carbon intensive development path,” the COP28 President-Designate warned.

With just seven years to go to meet the Paris Agreement goals, the need for finance is urgent. “Without a strong outcome on finance, the Paris Agreement simply cannot succeed.”

“Financial reforms, such as making concessional loans more affordable and mobilising private-sector financing for emerging and developing economies, would increase investments in the poorest countries, and improve climate resilience and enhance truly sustainable development,” the COP28 President-Designate said.

“There is no shortage of ideas or consensus on what needs to be done. What’s missing is getting it done,” Dr. Al Jaber said today. “I believe that the collective will and convening power in this room can make the necessary progress by COP28 in November, lay the foundation for a successful climate summit and can restore trust in the multilateral system. Our planet and our people, and especially the most vulnerable, are depending on it.”