COP28 President-designate participates in the Ministerial Meeting of the Seven Major Industrialized Countries on Climate, Energy and Environment in Japan

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, President-designate of COP28 and UAE Special Envoy to Japan, met in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, where he conveyed the greetings of the UAE leadership and its keenness to strengthen the strategic relations between the two friendly countries.
During his visit to Japan, His Excellency participated in the G28 Ministerial Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment in Sapporo, where he delivered a speech in which he stressed the importance of the Group presenting a successful model to provide climate finance in an adequate, accessible and affordable manner, in order to support the achievement of a logical, practical, gradual and equitable transition in the energy sector.
His Excellency explained that the world is far from the right track to meet climate commitments, which requires a radical and comprehensive correction through the topics of mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and financing, reaffirming the keenness of the COP7 presidency to cooperate and work closely with the Group of Seven to make a qualitative leap in all climate action tracks.
"In line with the vision of the leadership in the UAE, we will ensure that COP28 focuses on practicality, unifying efforts, joining hands and including everyone, because we need to move in the same direction in order to reach our goals, to establish partnerships and not to divide, and to consolidate agreement and not division," he said in his speech to the ministerial meeting.

His Excellency invited attendees and participants to work together to adopt an agenda that contributes to achieving a qualitative leap during the conference in a way that supports climate action in conjunction with sustainable economic and social growth, leaving no one behind.
The ministerial meeting on climate, energy and environment is part of a series of Group of Seven ministers' meetings in Japan this month in preparation for the upcoming Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima in May.
On the sidelines of the meeting, His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber held bilateral meetings with ministers and officials of energy, climate, economy and industry from India, Indonesia, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, during which he stressed the need for more climate finance to enable a fair and logical transition in the energy sector in emerging economies.
His Excellency called on the Group of Seven to reach agreement on a new climate finance mechanism to make progress across mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage; "We need to reach a more equitable financing agreement for the countries of the Global South, which provides more than just the required resources to those who need them most, and developed countries must first fulfill their pledges made more than a decade ago to provide $ 100 billion to developing countries.

He pointed to the need to triple the amounts allocated to investment in clean technology, adaptation financing, and equitable transition in the energy sector in developing and emerging economies by 2030, explaining that climate finance is currently not available in an adequate, affordable or affordable manner, and stressed the need for a radical reform process for international financial institutions to achieve climate and development goals simultaneously.

His Excellency stressed that the availability of climate finance is one of the most important enablers of implementing the necessary measures, stressing the need to develop the performance of international financial institutions, and to fulfill the provision of $ 100 billion pledged to help developing countries.
The countries of the Global South are still waiting for developed countries to commit to their pledge to provide $ 100 billion for climate finance, which was pledged more than ten years ago, and these countries are demanding to develop the performance of international financial institutions and multilateral development banks radically and effectively, adding: Let me speak to you today transparently and frankly, let's save the $ 100 billion, and we are keen to close the deficit by June and finish this stage to move to complete reforms It contributes to reducing the risks of climate change, providing more affordable capital, and attracting more capital from the private sector.
His Excellency also stressed the need to intensify work to progress towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, adding: "We need to increase renewable energy production capacity three times by 2030, and six times by 2040, and we need government legislation to stimulate and market viable alternatives in emission-intensive sectors and industries, such as the production and use of hydrogen fuel, and carbon capture technologies, and we must continue to reduce the carbon intensity of existing energy sources to ensure energy security during the transition phase in the sector.

He said: The global energy system will include in the coming decades both low-emission hydrocarbon resources, clean and renewable energy from various sources, and peaceful nuclear energy, and we must increase investment in reducing emissions and raising the efficiency of all energy sources, and we must remember that our opponent is emissions and not energy, we need more energy, with the lowest percentage of emissions to ensure sustainable economic and social development.
His Excellency stressed the need for solidarity and cooperation in climate action, saying that "the radical transformation that the world needs will only be achieved through the inclusion of all, so that no one remains on the sidelines," and stressed that "COP28 will be keen to unite the efforts of the North and the South, governments, industrial sectors, scientific fields and civil society, and we look forward to the Group of Seven adopting policies and taking the necessary actions to reach a climate contract agreement. "We must maintain the 1.5°C target and ensure sustainable economic and social development for all people, and we must remember that our goal is to reduce emissions, not slow growth and progress."
His Excellency explained that climate action does not have a "one-size-fits-all" solution, as there are different needs and capacities of different regions and countries, and that LNG, for example, is an important transitional fuel in Asia.
The President-designate of COP28 praised Japan's prominent role in advancing climate action, through the completion of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the first international treaty to set binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
"The Kyoto Protocol was a historic milestone in international efforts to confront the repercussions of climate change, as it was an important alert to the need for global climate action, and COP28 hosted by the UAE will follow up on these efforts. Once the global outcome of progress in implementing the goals of the Paris Agreement is achieved, the world will see how far we are from the required progress, and we must all respond with a comprehensive, ambitious and bold plan of action.
His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Jaber arrived in Japan from Washington, D.C., after participating in the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, where he renewed the call to develop the performance of international financial institutions to support economic growth and climate action simultaneously, with a focus on meeting the needs of the countries of the Global South.