CLIMATE FINANCE
RAMPING UP BY GETTING IN SYNC
Sa š a Eichberger, Senior Environmental Specialist at the World Bank
A climate finance workshop at the OPEC Fund discusses new ways to pool resources and leverage impact By Howard Hudson, OPEC Fund
Shaimaa Al-Sheiby, OPEC Fund Senior Director,
Strategic Planning & Economic Services
Dossina Yeo, Advisor to the Director of Operations at the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa
F ollowing their historic US$24 billion climate action pledge at COP27, Arab Coordination Group (ACG) members have been working hard to align everything from delivery and reporting to methodology and typology — and in mid-September 2023 held a dedicated Workshop on Climate Finance at the OPEC Fund Headquarters. Kicking-o ff on International Day for South-South Cooperation, September 12, ACG delegates joined experts from the World Bank, International Development Finance Club (IDFC), UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for two days of knowledge sharing on current trends and future scenarios in climate finance. OPEC Fund Senior Director, Strategic Planning & Economic Services Shaimaa Al-Sheiby opened discussions with a reminder of the ACG commitments made last November in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, when the regional development group pledged US$24 billion in new climate financing by 2030. “This workshop is an opportunity to share experiences and to help ACG members, including the OPEC Fund, to prepare for
COP28 in Dubai [in December 2023],” said Ms. Al-Sheiby. Chaired by OPEC Fund Senior ESG Advisor Somnath Basu participants in the first session shared the state of play in each of their regions and institutions. The group discussed a range of topical issues including climate targets and tracking, accounting methodology and portfolio analysis. Casper Van der Tak, Climate Change Consultant to the OPEC Fund, explored the details of the nine elements of mitigation tracking and the three steps of adaptation tracking, along with problem cases, before speakers from
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