COP28 Day 6 Innovation
COP28 President recaps key wins from first four days of COP28.
You have heard them all before so I am not going to list them again.
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Finance Day
Major international financial institutions and countries made new commitments to offer climate-resilient debt clauses (CRDCs) in their lending. These clauses allow debt to be paused to provide breathing space when countries are hit by climate catastrophes.
“By delivering new Climate Resilient Debt Clauses in Senegal and Guyana, the UK is allowing affected communities to temporarily pause debt repayments in the wake of a climate disaster, giving them breathing space to recover”.
Cooling
Climate change, population and income growth, and urbanization are increasing cooling demand, which is necessary to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Around 1.2 billion people in Africa and Asia lack access to cooling services, putting lives at risk from extreme heat, reducing farmers’ incomes, driving food loss and waste, and hindering universal vaccine access.
“As temperatures rise, it is critical that we work together to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions from the cooling sector while increasing access to sustainable cooling. This access is especially important for the most vulnerable communities, who have often contributed the least to climate change but are the most exposed to its impacts.
The problem is that air conditioning consumes a lot of energy and is often associated with high carbon emissions. If we are to increase access to cooling we must do it by renewable energy means.
Passive cooling measures – such as insulation, natural shading, ventilation and reflective surfaces – can dramatically reduce cooling loads. These can be provided, in part, by clever building design.
Innovation
COP28’s Climate Innovation Forum brought together the world’s technology leaders in a series of talks exploring cutting-edge solutions to tackle the global climate crisis, including artificial intelligence (AI), satellite technology, big data, clean energy, industrial decarbonisation, low-carbon hydrogen, and more. Bill Gates was present as was the CEO of IBM and the sustainability officer from Google.
“We are confronted with two distinct paths—one of hope and opportunity and the other in potential catastrophe. The potential for a technological revolution underpinned by environmental responsibility could lead us to a carbon-neutral future, reshaping our utilization of Earth’s resources to achieve progress and preservation simultaneously.” Omar Sultan Al Olama
Innovation Projects
Project InnerSpace and Google announced GeoMap™, a first of its kind geothermal exploration tool, which is focused on expanding the use and adoption of geothermal energy worldwide.
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst spotlighted its newly announced projects that will accelerate the deployment of innovative clean energy technologies.These include Ørsted’s FlagshipONE, the largest e-Methanol project in Europe, Energy Dome’s Ottana CO2 Battery Project, a first-of-a-kind long duration energy storage project, and Infinium’s Project Roadrunner, a commercial-scale Power-to-Liquids eFuels facility.
COP28: Record number of fossil fuel delegates at climate talks
At COP26, in Glasgow, there were some 500 delegates with fossil fuel backgrounds.
Last year at COP27 in Egypt, the numbers had swollen by a quarter, with more than 600 representatives there.
