Leading finance and investment vehicles including ADQ, BlackRock, CIFF, GFANZ, HSBC, Masdar, Ninety One, and the World Bank Group have come together to launch a new Global Climate Finance Centre, which will seek to ‘pioneer new forms of climate finance’.
The Global Climate Finance Centre, or GCFC for short, will be based in Abu Dhabi,and will seek to accelerate the development of climate finance frameworks and skills, as well as champion best practices both domestically and globally.
It has been established by Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), which is also among the founding members.
Develop best practices
According to ADGM, the GCFC will undertaken research in order to develop best practices, principles and solutions to align frameworks for sustainable investment, as well as convening private and public stakeholders with a view to developing pipelines of bankable investment opportunities. In addition, a Climate Finance Academy will provide training modules related to green finance.
As well as drawing strategic insight from its nine founder members, the GCFC said that it will ‘seek to work with peer institutions and knowledge partners to build on sustainable finance leadership, develop expertise in-house and deliver maximum impact’.
Future focus
“The future focus of the think tank speaks directly to a number of areas of interest for many of our clients around the world, as they seek the best data, analytics and insights to navigate the risks and capture the investment opportunities of the transition to a low-carbon economy,” commented Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock. “As we do with many think tanks and organisations around the world, we look forward to contributing our insights and research to the GCFC.”
Elsewhere, Noel Quinn, group chief executive at HSBC, noted that in order for the world to achieve its climate goals, it is “absolutely critical that thinking continues to evolve, markets continue to develop, and countries continue to collaborate”.
Read More: COP28 president-delegate calls for ‘new era’ in climate finance
Mercedes Vela Monserrate
The GCFC will be led by Mercedes Vela Monserrate, the sustainability lead for ADGM and a key advisor to COP28, as its chief executive.
The GCFC announcement coincides with the launch of ALTÉRRA, a $30 billion climate vehicle that aims to reform the climate finance system, concentrating on bolstering funding accessibility for the Global South. ALTÉRRA has set a target of mobilising US$250 billion by 2030.
Pictured are the founding members of the GCFC, including Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Co-Chair, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ); Noel Quinn, group chief executive at HSBC; Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock; Mercedes Vela Monserrate, GCFC CEO; H.E. Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Development (ADDED) and (Abu Dhabi Global Market) ADGM; Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group; Kate Hampton, chief executive officer of CIFF; and Hendrik du Toit, founder and chief executive officer of Ninety One.
