Tony Blair addresses UAE-UK Hosted Climate Finance Roundtable in New York City

​“The finance sector is an indispensable partner in the future success of clean energy,” said Mr. Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. “During the time that I have worked to advance solutions to climate change I have seen an important shift from high level policy discussions to practical solutions on the ground.” He pointed to the UAE as one of the leaders in this transition.

“This workshop has suggested practical solutions, such as the idea of policy guidelines for host countries of clean energy projects and investor education to avoid overpricing of such projects in secondary markets,” added Mr. Blair.

The Roundtable on Clean Energy Finance was hosted jointly by His Excellency, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and CEO of Masdar, and Mr. Greg Barker, UK Minister of State for Climate Change . This meeting was the direct result of an earlier event held in Abu Dhabi in January 2013 as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, and brought together Ministers and around 30 leading experts from the private sector finance community.

The goal of the meeting was to find creative ways to bring more financial backing to clean energy projects around the world. Although the clean energy sector is one of the fastest growing components of the world economy, some financial regulations, along with a lack of information in the financial sector itself are hampering that growth. 

“The United Arab Emirates has long seen renewable energy, energy efficiency and related technologies as powerful growth opportunities for the future,” said Dr. Sultan Al Jaber. “Our growing experience includes implementing projects domestically, making commercial investments internationally, and also expanding our development assistance where needed in developing countries to make projects viable. This breadth of experience means that we have a lot to share in terms of lessons learned.”

The Round Table was attended by leading financial experts, including senior figures from Deutsche Bank, Masdar Capital, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, the European Investment Bank and many others, as well as Ministers from Chile and Peru. Participants identified challenges and solutions in financial regulation, energy policy and investor education that promises to reduce both the real and perceived risk associated with clean energy projects. This should make finance more readily available to developers. 

“Private sector finance is crucial to scaling up the use of clean energy in emerging economies and averting dangerous climate change,” said Greg Barker. “The UK is at the cutting edge of driving innovative finance to support green growth around the world and the City of London is a global leader in the fast-growing green finance market set to be worth 5 trillion dollars by 2015.

“I am delighted to be working with Dr. Sultan Al Jaber to push this agenda forward.”

The UAE-UK Climate Finance Roundtable is a necessary platform to share knowledge and inform the finance sector of the favorable and stable returns clean energy investments can yield when backed by long-term contracts with investment grade counterparties.

The outcomes of the Round Table discussion are expected to make a major contribution to international debates on further action to accelerate clean energy deployment and fight climate change. In particular, they contribute to the Leaders Summit on climate change that the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will host in New York in September 2014.

Having originated at ADSW 2013, the messages on clean energy finance will be further explored in January 2014, at the next ADSW. 

“This Round Table is a great example of the international influence of ADSW in the international debate,” said Dr. Sultan Al Jaber. “Bringing together the finance community to find practical ways to grow our market is yet another initiative undertaken by the UAE and the UK, who as responsible energy players have taken a leadership role in advancing the deployment of clean energy technologies. Most recently this has included collaborative projects such as the London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, located in the Thames Estuary.”