These meetings aimed to unite efforts ahead of the COP29 climate conference, set to begin on Monday.
The gathering was led by UK government ministers—Energy Minister Ed Miliband, Development Minister Anneliese Dodds, and Environment Minister Steve Reed.
Three roundtables focused on financing the renewable energy transition, accelerating climate resilience investments, and establishing a global agreement to end plastic pollution.
“In the lead-up to COP29, the UK aims to take a leading role in establishing a new and expanded financing goal that will attract more private sector funding and financial institution support, while also extending aid for climate action in developing countries,” the government statement noted.
Climate change has led to severe droughts in Brazil’s Amazon region and heightened flooding and storms in Bangladesh, threatening low-lying areas due to rising sea levels.
During the green energy financing roundtable, moderated by Energy Minister Miliband, attendees included IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, Azerbaijan’s Finance Minister Samir Sharifov, and World Economic Forum President Børge Brende.
“Participants agreed that increasing clean energy investments in emerging and developing economies is key to meeting the globally agreed targets of tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 °C, as outlined in the Paris Agreement,” the statement reported.
“At COP29 next week, we will collaborate with other nations to raise ambition in tackling the climate crisis, as the time for decisive action has arrived,” Miliband stated.
At another roundtable on climate adaptation and resilience, led by Development Minister Dodds, attendees recognized a substantial gap in climate adaptation funding—especially in comparison to mitigation financing—and stressed the need to close this gap. They discussed the importance of integrating climate risk considerations into investment decisions.
“Participants agreed on the need to build an economic case for climate-resilient financing and that partnerships between the public and private sectors are crucial to achieving this goal,” the statement added.
Dodds emphasized the urgency of additional measures to boost resilience against climate impacts: “We must build a global economy and infrastructure capable of withstanding the increasingly destructive effects of the climate crisis. This will require attention from the entire global financial system to unlock private financing and meet the $387 billion funding target.”
At the plastic pollution roundtable chaired by Environment Minister Steve Reed, executives from leading corporations, trade companies, and financial institutions discussed the importance of reaching an ambitious, legally binding plastic pollution agreement at the UN negotiations in Busan at the end of November. They signed a statement calling for an end to plastic pollution by 2040.
