COP28: UNIDO, OPEC Fund and SEforALL sign a cooperation agreement

December 4, 2023. UNIDO, OPEC Fund and SEforALL signed a cooperation agreement on the Climate Finance and Energy Innovation Hub to accelerate climate finance and energy innovation in policy, financing and partnerships. The new agreement identifies the specific activities and goals of the Climate Finance and Energy Innovation Hub, which was launched during COP 27 in Egypt. The facility is expected to help mobilize finance, mostly in the form of matching grants to end users and beneficiary companies to promote energy access in developing countries. The Hub aims to provide an end-to-end policy and a finance global platform, which will introduce innovative financing solutions to leverage additional capital for sustainable energy investments. The Hub has six Pillars: (1) Big Data / Impact; (2) Energy Compact / Policy and Regulatory Support; (3) Knowledge and Capacity Building; (4) Transformative Pipeline Development; (5) Innovative Financing Solutions; and (6) Financing Partnerships.

During the signing ceremony OPEC Fund announced its intention to join the Council on Ethanol Clean Cooking (CECC), a member country owned multi-stakeholder networking and knowledge platform hosted by UNIDO to promote Tier 4 & Tier 5 clean cooking solutions in developing countries. Since its launch at COP 27 last year, 16 countries and 11 partner organizations confirmed membership. This marks a pivotal moment for UNIDO as it further strengthens its partnership with the OPEC Fund and SEforALL to collaborate to scale up clean cooking in member countries of the CECC commencing with Madagascar’s National Clean Cooking Transition Programme.

UNIDO Director General Müller affirmed: “The signing of the agreement will boost funding for sustainable energy investments and innovative financial solutions as well as scale up support for clean cooking in developing countries that is need the most at this juncture”. OPEC Fund Director-General Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said: “With this collaboration agreement we will be able to reinforce the hub’s role as an end-to-end policy and finance platform to accelerate access to modern energy services and support energy transition in developing countries.” CEO Ogunbiyi added: “This collaboration provides an opportunity to achieve real on-the-ground impact that builds local capacity and creates the enabling environments needed to attract critical investments for a just energy transition.” In their cooperation agreement, the organizations confirmed their commitment to increase cooperation in advancing energy access and expanding efforts to scaling up clean cooking.