UAE president announces $30-billion fund to bridge climate finance gap

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose country is hosting the COP28 climate summit, announced on Friday, December 1, the establishment of a $30-billion climate fund that aims to attract $250 billion of investment by the end of the decade.

Dubbed ALTÉRRA, the fund will allocate $25 billion towards climate strategies and $5 billion specifically to incentivize investment flows into the Global South, according to a statement by the COP28 Presidency.

In collaboration with global asset managers BlackRock, Brookfield, and TPG, ALTÉRRA has committed $6.5 billion to climate-dedicated funds for global investments, including the Global South, the statement said.

The vehicle “aims to steer private markets towards climate investments and focus on transforming emerging markets and developing economies, where traditional investment has been lacking due to the higher perceived risks across those geographies,” it added.

BlackRock said in a statement that ALTÉRRA would put $1 billion into its Climate Transition-Oriented Private Debt strategy, and had also committed $1 billion to invest in, or co-invest alongside, BlackRock’s infrastructure equity business.

Brookfield Asset Management said it was launching a new Catalytic Transition Fund, which will focus exclusively on developing countries, with up to $1 billion of ALTÉRRA cash. ALTÉRRA has also committed to invest $2 billion into its second Brookfield Global Transition Fund.

ALTÉRRA was established by Lunate, a newly set up Abu Dhabi-based alternative investment manager with over $50 billion in assets.

Lunate is owned by its senior management and Chimera Investment LLC, which is part of a business empire overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser and the president’s brother.

The UAE has drawn criticism for its plans to expand oil and gas production as the world struggles to rein in the climate-damaging carbon emissions these fossil fuels produce.

Against that backdrop, the UAE has been keen to encourage finance and business more broadly to commit more money to the climate fight and was expected to open its own checkbook throughout the two-week UN climate summit. – Rappler.com