Statement by Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation, on the COP28 UAE Declaration of Leaders on a Global Climate Finance Framework

At the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) today, world leaders launched a Global Climate Finance Framework that incorporates and builds on the Bridgetown Initiative, the world’s big bet to revitalize the international financial architecture and make it fit-for-purpose in an era of increasingly urgent challenges.

I am grateful that these leaders have endorsed this plan to scale up public and private financing to help solve the biggest problem facing humanity today: the climate crisis. The Framework continues progress made this year in Paris and Nairobi that we at The Rockefeller Foundation were proud to support and is an important step in the right direction.

Still, we are far from assembling the political will needed to fully address climate change and the many other crises emerging and developing countries face. There are too many barriers preventing the transformations needed to reverse climate change and advance equitable economic opportunity. As a result, the Foundation will continue to focus on developing policy solutions and building the political coalitions needed to turn the proposed reforms of the global financial system into realities.

As we do, the Foundation is proud to continue our work with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who was recognized today as the next leader of the Vulnerable Group of Twenty (V20), following Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo. She is a visionary leader and a valued partner. In the year ahead, I look forward to working with Prime Minister Mottley to ensure the 21^st century is, as we wrote together earlier this year, “more prosperous, fair, and peaceful.”