As the U.N.’s 28th annual climate summit comes to a close, commentators will analyze each announcement—and the underlying bickering among nations—in great detail. But however one interprets the fine print, the reality is that the main obstacle to tackling global emissions is money. By some estimates, the world requires nearly $4 trillion of annual investment to transform the world’s dependence on carbon and build economies powered by clean energy.
Where will such large sums of money come from? Is it all doom and gloom? FP’s Ravi Agrawal spoke with Rajiv Shah, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, after he returned from COP28. Shah is the former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Obama administration and a leading driver of public-private partnerships to raise low-interest capital for the developing world’s efforts to decarbonize
Video clips from this event
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Raj Shah, former USAID administrator and president of the Rockefeller Foundation, explains that success at COP will be judged by whether an agreement on phasing out fossil fuels is reached.
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Shah on how to generate more financing for climate change.
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Shah talks with Ravi Agrawal about the incremental progress made at COP28 but warns that none of it is on the order of what is actually needed to help emerging and developing economies.
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Shah on how to modernize multilateral development banks such as the the World Bank and how developed nations like the United States can lead the charge.
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Shah explains what holds countries back from putting up the money to finance climate change.
