SPECIAL FEATURE
“OUR GOAL IS THE LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE OF CLEAN ENERGY”
OPEC Fund Assistant Director-General Fuad Albassam on how the institution combines long-term development goals with short- term humanitarian demands and the opportunities COP28 offers By Howard Hudson, OPEC Fund
20 percent at present to 40 percent of all new financing by the end of the decade. Under this umbrella comes the Clean Cooking Initiative, which we’ve already started in Madagascar and which covers many SDGs beyond energy and climate – including health, poverty and equality. This pilot will be followed by other projects across sub- Saharan Africa. At the OPEC Fund, we’re not only financing physical infrastructure. We recently launched a new instrument
in the form of policy-based loans and have already made a large investment in Latin America and the Caribbean. The goal is to reinforce the long-term perspective of clean energy policies but with the caveat that our operations remain country-driven. OFQ : Is working with the private sector part of that ambition? FAB: Yes, we’re already co-financing private sector projects in East Africa, which involve energy generation and
transmission. Our Private Sector department is doing very good work on solar and wind projects, and as head of the Public Sector department I can say that we always aim to synergize and complement these efforts. We look forward to more opportunities to work with the private sector, including on public-private partnerships. OFQ : The UN Climate Change Conference COP28 will be held in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in late 2023. Do we have any particular plans for this global event? FAB: As UAE is an OPEC Fund member state, COP28 is a very good opportunity for us to demonstrate who we are as a development institution, especially on the SDGs, climate and related issues. There will certainly be strategic planning and other work with the Arab Coordination Group, as we saw with our joint declaration at COP27. Our participation at COP28 in Dubai could take the form of an extension of our COP27 declaration, as we continue our intensive outreach with partners and stakeholders at major international forums.
PROFILE: FUAD ALBASSAM Fuad Albassam is the Assistant Director- General, Public Sector Operations at the OPEC Fund, where he previously served as Director of Africa Region and Director of Asia Region. Prior to joining the OPEC Fund, he was Senior Project Officer at the Saudi Fund for Development. Mr. Albassam holds a Master’s in Engineering Management from George Washington University, USA and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Central Florida, USA.
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