RIYADH: The combination of private and public capital is capable of propelling efforts to achieve climate goals, according to the executive director of the Green Climate Fund.
Speaking during a panel discussion titled “Climate & Nature: Seed Capital Needed” on the third day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mafalda Duarte explained how this investment is crucial.
“We have come a long way in trying to bring public capital together,” Duarte said.
“We have seen the power of bringing people together; we have brought public and private capital together mostly in the project finance spaces,” she added.
Duarte underscored the impactful role of the Green Climate Fund in supporting initiatives throughout various phases.
“We have helped private sector companies go through certain learning curves, but we have a problem of scale,” the executive director highlighted.
“This is why, we need this sort of push and this type of initiative,” she stressed.
Also speaking during the same panel discussion, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry shed light on his attempts to convince national leaders to choose alternative energy production processes.
“Where they have gas, they could also be deploying renewables but they want to choose the gas,” Kerry noted.
“So, how do you go into that place and persuade people, wait that’s a bad choice and you have a better choice,” he said.
Kerry added: “I’m convinced that the only way we win this battle is by stepping up exponentially from where we are today and begin to treat this fight almost as if we are in a war.”
Established in 1971, WEF is an international nongovernmental organization for public–private sector collaboration.
It provides a global, impartial, not-for-profit platform for meaningful connections between stakeholders to establish trust and build initiatives for cooperation and progress.
It strives to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest governance standards.
For more than 50 years, the forum has developed historic initiatives, industry breakthroughs, economic solutions and thousands of collaborations, thereby improving the state of the world.
