Canada praises UAE's 'very engaged' Cop28 presidency

G7 nation pledges another $450 million for global climate action

Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said more private funding was needed for climate action. Reuters

Canada’s Environment Minister told The National on Wednesday that the UAE was “sending all of the right signals” as the world looks to the Cop28 summit in Dubai to make breakthroughs in tackling climate change.

Stephen Guilbeault praised the “very engaged” UAE presidency as he said a renewed political push was needed to get a deal on paying for climate disasters over the line at the summit, which starts in November.

Speaking in Brussels, Mr Guilbeault challenged rich countries to increase their funding for climate action as he announced Canada would put another $450 million into a dedicated green fund.

Preparations for Cop28 are intensifying this week as ministers from 26 countries hold talks in Brussels on the issues likely to dominate the summit in the UAE.

Canada has positioned itself as a prominent wealthy-world voice urging developed countries to be more generous in funding climate action.

Germany and Canada said in May that a promise by rich countries, dating back to 2009, to arrange $100 billion in annual funding for the developing world could finally be met this year.

Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the President-designate of Cop28 and the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said on Tuesday he was encouraged that the money might soon be in place.

But Mr Guilbeault said the world “needs more money from all sources” including greater input from the private sector.

“Money talks, so we encourage other contributors – traditional and new – to use this second replenishment of the Green Climate Fund to raise their ambition,” he said.

Canada has pledged to get rid of 'inefficient' subsidies for its large oil and gas sector. Bloomberg

Henry Gonzalez, the deputy executive director of the UN-backed fund, said he hoped other contributors would be “inspired” by Canada’s “early and ambitious pledge”.

Finance is one of the most sensitive issues in UN climate negotiations. One key debate is about a meeting the costs of global warming that can no longer be stopped, or “loss and damage” in UN jargon. A fund was agreed in principle at Cop27 in Egypt but details are still to be worked out.

Mr Guilbeault said Canada “would like to see more progress happening” and questioned whether “there's enough countries that that are there politically” after recent talks in Germany exposed divisions on loss and damage.

Asked by The National whether the UAE could broker a deal Mr Guilbeault said: “The Cop presidency is very engaged.

“And clearly they're sending all the all of the right signals. Now we need to bring all of this together to ensure that we have a successful Cop.”

Mr Guilbeault said Canada, the world’s fourth-biggest oil exporter, believes there is a “growing consensus” around expanding renewable energy amid calls to speed up the shift to clean power.

Dr Al Jaber wrote this week in a joint article with the head of the International Energy Agency that there was a “major global divide” in funding for clean energy.

Barriers include “inefficient subsidies that tilt the playing field against clean energy investments”, Dr Al Jaber and IEA chief Fatih Birol said in the opinion piece published by Fortune.

Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Cop28 President-designate, meets Spanish Enviroment Minister Teresa Ribera at talks in Europe preparing for the summit in Dubai. COP28 UAE / Twitter

Canada is one of the G7 countries that have repeatedly pledged to end inefficient fossil fuel subsidies and an announcement is expected from Ottawa in the coming weeks.

The country gets most of its electricity using hydroelectric dams but leans on its large oil and gas resources to heat homes. Estimates say the G7 spends tens of billions of dollars a year on subsidising fossil fuels.

Dr Al Jaber and Mr Birol called for funding for clean energy to come from a mixture of public and private sources and a “suite of measures” to unblock money via reforms to pricing and permitting.

“We call on all countries, companies and other actors to come together at Cop28 to deliver an ambitious outcome that drives real action to fund a just transition for all emerging and developing economies,” they said.

Dr Al Jaber separately used talks in Valladolid, Spain, to renew calls for a trebling of global renewable energy capacity and a doubling of hydrogen production. Diplomats have said a roadmap to expanding clean energy is on the cards at Cop28.

“There seems to be a growing consensus that this is something we can probably agree upon,” Mr Guilbeault said.

“I don't think everyone is there yet. We in Canada are very favourable. To do something like that it needs to be coupled with something on the reduction of our dependencies on fossil fuels.”