By Celine Lai
Jürgen Rigterink, First Vice-President and Head of Client Services Group, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says about climate justice that:
“To succeed, we need the private sector, which has the power to channel trillions into the green transition—not only because for its financial power but also its innovative genius and ability to find new and inventive solutions.
Today’s energy mix is about 80 to 83 percent hydrocarbons. By 2050, we have to be at zero percent. This will involve an extraordinary rewiring of the economy; the speed and scale of this transition will be unparalleled in economic history.
Introducing a carbon price or imposing a low-carbon mandate can help to create demand or reduce the competitiveness gap. In turn, more investment in technologies that are still relatively new will drive efficiencies and cost reductions. This has been the story of the renewable-energy sector; it needs to be replicated across the whole economy.
This is why multilateral development banks (MDBs) resolved to focus at COP26 on communicating their efforts to create new platforms, investment vehicles and blended-finance instruments to increase the levels of private capital mobilised in support of mitigation and adaptation investments. This complements developing work on private finance, including the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).
The good news is that private-sector interest in green investments is growing sharply. There is an ever-increasing amount of private money keen to find a green home. And there are more and more viable projects, technologies and new developments in which to invest that can generate acceptable returns from genuinely competitive business models.
We cannot close our eyes to the social and economic implications of the green transition, as they can impact local employment and livelihood. Dedicated approaches must be developed and implemented to support a just transition, which is why our approach to ensuring that just transition includes reskilling and entrepreneurship programmes.
Transforming the energy sector, which produces most emissions, requires significant investment, a restructuring of the energy market and support for those bearing the immediate costs
But according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), a surge in clean investments will create 14 million new jobs worldwide and add 4 percent to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030 compared to the “business as usual” scenario.”
All of the above is from the complete article HERE.