COP28

The session will address how trade policy and the multilateral system can facilitate an enabling international trade and investment environment that will help to secure energy transition-related value chains while increasing mineral-rich countries' benefits by fostering 'on-site' value addition and, thereby, creating socio-economic development opportunities.   The objective is to forge consensus on the need to foster domestic value-addition to critical minerals in producing developing countries to increase supply chains resilience, and sustainability, and to ensure fairer distribution of benefits from trade in critical minerals-based products to all value chain participants.

The Sustainable Innovation Forum 2023 returns for its 15th annual edition during COP, organised by Climate Action, bringing together 1,000 global sustainability leaders across all sectors including business, government, cities, finance, and civil society to promote transformative innovation and tangible climate action to help us go further, faster together.  

Taking place from 4-5 December during COP28 within the Climate Action Innovation Zone at the Madinat Jumeirah Conference Centre in Dubai, this strategic location offers easy access to the Forum without requiring COP28 Blue Zone accreditation, ensuring an inclusive platform and gathering for all key stakeholders and decision-makers.

Don’t miss out on this chance to make a real impact at COP28. Show your commitment to the global sustainability and climate agenda by joining us. With multiple networking opportunities, it is an ideal opportunity to connect with climate leaders, pioneers and practitioners at COP.

CEO Rohitesh Dhawan is speaking on a panel. The session will be opened by His Excellency Bandar Al-Khorayef, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabian government. immediately followed by a panel discussion with His Excellency, Khalid Al-Mudaifer, Vice-Minister for Mining Affairs; Gerd Müller, Director General of UNIDO; and Robert Wilt, Chief Executive Officer of Ma’aden. 

The panel should highlight that Brazil is committed to a fair energy transition and has the potential to become an important global player. The panel work on two questions: (i) why Brazil?; (ii) how can Brazil contribute to the global agenda? Despite being the 5th largest emitter in the world, Brazil has a differentiated emissions profile and is heavily concentrated on land use and deforestation, which makes it possible for the country to make a rapid transition and becomes the first G20 country to reach the carbon neutrality. There are opportunities to combine economic development and ambitious decarbonization targets, as well as the introduction of new technologies, such as low-carbon hydrogen, carbon capture, SAF and green diesel, fundamental to green reindustrialization.

Director of Innovation Christian Spano will join a panel that’s shining a spotlight on how organisations are rising to the challenge of the nature crisis. The event is a platform for private sector clients that are aligning their activities with better outcomes for nature and government representatives developing their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). The session is taking place in the Blue Zone’s Joint MDB Pavilion in the Opportunity Area – OR02G3.

The event will also launch the EBRD’s Approach to Nature, a strategic compass guiding its commitment to support the Global Biodiversity Framework targets and deliver on the COP26 Joint Statement on Nature, People, and Planet. The Approach outlines how the Bank will: 1) protect nature, with enhanced safeguarding to identify opportunities for net gains in projects, 2) invest in nature, focusing on the Bank’s strengths in pollution prevention, blue-green infrastructure, and governance, including policy dialogue; and 3) disclose the Bank’s nature-related activities and support clients with ambitions to do the same.