COP28 President-designate meets French President in Paris

Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and President-designate of COP28, paid a visit to Paris during which he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, where he conveyed to him the greetings of the leadership and its keenness to strengthen bilateral relations between the two friendly countries. His Excellency also met with a group of climate officials in government and civil society. The visit was part of a global tour to listen to stakeholders in preparation for the UAE hosting the conference in November.

During his meetings, Al Jaber explained the vision of the leadership in the UAE on achieving a qualitative leap in climate action, stressing the importance of achieving progress in the topics of mitigation, adaptation, climate finance, loss and damage, and stressed the need to provide climate finance, and the need to develop the performance of multilateral financial institutions to provide the necessary capital to finance clean technologies, adaptation efforts, and address losses and damages.

Al Jaber stressed keenness to cooperate with France during the summit dedicated to reaching a new global financial agreement to be held in Paris in June 2023 in an effort to build momentum ahead of the Conference of the Parties.

Al Jaber said: "We will focus on building on the momentum of the New Global Financial Compact Summit in June to achieve practical achievements at COP28, which will be an important milestone ahead of COP<>, during which we must focus on attracting private sector financing, expanding concessional financing, and advancing carbon markets."

Al Jaber met with a range of climate officials from government and civil society, as well as Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Laurent Fabius, former Prime Minister of France and President of COP21, Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery, and Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Bané-Ronachet.

During these meetings, Al Jaber stressed the need to mobilize all efforts and resources necessary to achieve a successful and equitable transition in the global energy sector, and the need for countries to fulfill their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.

During a special roundtable hosted by the International Energy Agency (IEA), attended by ambassadors from 50 countries representing developing economies and OECD countries, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber stressed that there is an opportunity to unite the efforts of all sectors in order to achieve the desired progress in climate action.

"We need the cooperation of all segments of society, including governments, the private sector and civil society, to ensure that they move in the same direction, because the world is progressing through partnership, not closure and division," he said. I firmly believe that we can achieve the greatest transformation of human growth and prosperity since the first industrial revolution if we join forces and forge smart partnerships."

In another meeting with members of the NGO community, Al Jaber pointed to the need for commitment, action and optimism, pointing to the need for a "radical correction process" by saying: "We intend to respond to the results of the global outcome, and start correcting the course by advancing progress on each pillar of the Paris Agreement," and called on NGOs to support the COP28 presidency, saying: "We need your ideas, opinions, networks, research, data, passion... We are confident that constructive dialogue will enhance the effectiveness of efforts to mitigate the repercussions of climate change and build a better future for all."

The visit is the latest in Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber's global listening tour in his capacity as COP28 President-designate, which included the United States, Germany and India.

Al Jaber is planned to visit other countries, including a group of developing countries and small island states, and the COP28 presidency intends to use these visits to hear the views of stakeholders in various sectors, including governments, business, academia and civil society, with a view to joining forces ahead of COP28.