Business and philanthropy are a major source of $6 trillion annually in climate funding

The activities of the 2025 session of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week continue under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, which began on January 12 and will continue until the 18th of this month. The main event of this week was held, the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week Summit, entitled “Integration of sectors for a sustainable future.” With its keynote discussions and speeches, the summit reviewed how vibrant and interconnected economies can achieve the highest levels of sustainable progress. The summit provided a global platform to accelerate paths of change and unite members of the international community to build a flexible, comprehensive and sustainable future.
The summit witnessed speeches from high-level speakers, including Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy, Paula Tinubu, President of the Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Thani Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Dr. Abdullah Hamid Al-Jarwan, Chairman of the Department of Energy in Abu Dhabi, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Paul Kagame, President Republic of Rwanda, Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Badr Jaafar, CEO of Crescent Enterprises and Special Envoy for Business and Charitable Affairs in the UAE.

In Badr Jaafar’s keynote speech, entitled “Financing the Future: Who is Leading the Change,” he spoke about the need to quadruple funding allocated to climate issues to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, stressing the crucial role of the private sector in this. He said: “What is required here is not institutional grants and donations, but rather clear and allocated investments worth 6 trillion. And since the assets under management worldwide exceed 120 trillion across insurance and retirement funds, family offices and sovereign wealth funds, there is no doubt that we have huge amounts of money available to us.” However, we must better direct it. In fact, net private wealth exceeds $450 trillion and is expected to increase by more than 6% annually.”

Badr Jaafar pointed out that providing this huge amount of resources will require the involvement of the Global South and activating its role. He added: “The Global South is a great powerhouse in every sense of the word, with 85% of the world’s population and more than half of the global GDP. By 2030, it is expected that the Global South will constitute more than 80% of the global middle class, which opens the door to “It opens its doors to unparalleled opportunities for development and sustainable progress.”

Emphasizing the need to follow an approach that includes all segments of society in managing climate challenges, Badr Jaafar continued and said: “The leadership of the UAE has always believed that the strongest engine of society is its unity and solidarity in work, and the cooperation of all stakeholders and sectors to achieve the maximum, most impactful and sustainable results. The two business sectors participate Charitable work with governments is a crucial and essential factor in achieving climate and natural goals on the largest possible scale. Therefore, we must work boldly, hand in hand, with all sectors and regions “The world, let us seize with a strong, firm fist this great historic opportunity.”

The summit included a series of keynote speeches, panels and exclusive dialogues that provided an exceptional platform to amplify different voices and push them into the spotlight, encouraged closer cooperation between sustainability leaders and highlighted effective solutions. The discussions highlighted the urgency of climate challenges and the need to benefit from technological developments and collective intelligence to move efforts on the right track. In its edition this year, the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week Summit emphasized the key role it plays every year as a global platform for innovation, cooperation and action, on which leaders from all over the world unite to accelerate progress towards a sustainable and prosperous future for all.