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The COP29 Presidency and the International Energy Agency (IEA), in close partnership with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, held the second High-Level Energy Transition Dialogue today in preparation for the COP29 climate change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Co-chaired by COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev and IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, the dialogue took place at Mansion House, hosted by the City of London Corporation during London Climate Action Week. The event brought together over 50 leaders in energy, climate, and finance to discuss strategies for significantly increasing global clean energy investment, which needs to double to more than $4 trillion annually by 2030 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
A key focus of the dialogue was on mobilizing the necessary financing to realize clean energy projects, particularly in emerging and developing economies where high borrowing costs and various risks hinder capital flow to crucial projects.
Participants in the dialogue included notable figures such as African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Amani Abou-Zeid, Germany’s State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action Jennifer Morgan, and Ireland’s Minister for Transport, Climate, Environment & Communications Eamon Ryan. Additionally, Selwin Hart, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action and Just Transition; Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All; and COP26 President Alok Sharma were in attendance.
The event also saw participation from key leaders in the financial sector and industry, including Barclays Global Head of Sustainability Daniel Hanna, Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change CEO Stephanie Pfeifer, ReNew Energy Co-founder and Chairperson of Sustainability Vaishali Nigam Sinha, and Prudential Chair Shriti Vadera.
“Delivering fast and fair energy transitions hinges on greater investment in clean energy – especially in emerging and developing economies, where financing is not getting to the projects that need it,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. “Today’s High-Level Dialogue in London for COP29 – which brought together leaders from energy, finance and climate – marked an important step in the right direction, and I’d like to thank the COP29 President-Designate and the Lord Mayor of the City of London for convening it with the IEA. I look forward to building on these discussions in the coming months. We need to strengthen efforts to connect investors seeking clean energy opportunities with the markets where this investment can make a major difference. Establishing a strong pipeline of bankable clean energy projects, and tackling the barriers to financing them, is essential to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C within reach.”
“This second COP29 IEA High-Level Energy Transition Dialogue represents an important moment in bringing energy and climate leaders together to discuss ambitions for COP29 in Azerbaijan,” COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev added. “Such platforms provide vital input as we build fair and shared solutions together to meet the urgency of our collective climate challenge and we are actively incorporating the priorities identified in these discussions into our plan of action for COP29. We are intensifying our activities with all parties to build high-level political engagement across the two pillars of our Presidency’s vision to enhance ambition and enable action.” |
