WASHINGTON, April 19,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of
State, the Bezos Earth Fund, and The Rockefeller Foundation today
announced next steps for the future governance and structure of the
Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA), a high-integrity carbon
finance platform aimed at catalyzing private capital to support
ambitious just energy transition strategies in developing and
emerging economies. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
(C2ES) will serve as the ETA's secretariat, and former Secretary of
State John Kerry will serve as
honorary chair of the ETA's newly established Senior Consultative
Group.
Today's announcements at the National Museum of American
Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State are the latest steps in
the ETA's establishment as an independent initiative. The ETA
partners began their collaboration at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. After a year of extensive consultations
with government, business, and civil society stakeholders, the
partners released the core ETA Framework at COP28 in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, as several major companies and
countries declared their interest in engaging in the continued
development of the groundbreaking initiative.
"We must deliver innovative finance solutions at the speed and
scale needed to transition to clean power and keep 1.5 degrees
within reach. Working in partnership with developing countries, the
ETA can mobilize billions to transition away from fossil fuels and
achieve an ambitious, just clean energy future," said
John Kerry, former Secretary of
State and former U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
Secretary Kerry led the Department of State's engagement as a
founding partner of the ETA from 2022-2024. Secretary Kerry was
joined on stage by John Podesta,
Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate
Policy.
"LEAF and ETA are forging strong partnerships between
governments and the private sector. We invite other
governments and other companies to join us in partnership as we
carry these efforts forward so that, together, we can achieve the
full potential of high-integrity carbon markets," said
Richard R. Verma, Deputy
Secretary of State for Management and Resources.
"Investment in the energy transition needs to rise seven-fold by
2030," said Dr. Andrew Steer,
President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund. "Carbon credits,
done right, can play a vitally important role. The Energy
Transition Accelerator, by insisting on the highest standards, can
usher in a new phase of high integrity carbon crediting. Now is the
time to accelerate investment in an equitable energy transition
away from fossil fuels."
"To advance human opportunity even as we slow climate change, we
must invest in the people and communities living on the front lines
of the climate crisis. The Energy Transition Accelerator is the
sort of innovative solution that can unlock the billions and
billions of dollars needed to ensure everyone – not just the
wealthiest countries – can access the renewable energy technologies
that can bolster the lives of people and communities even as they
help protect the planet," said Dr. Rajiv
J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation.
The ETA will pioneer an innovative sectoral-scale carbon
crediting standard enabling developing countries to generate
high-quality carbon credits as a way to finance their transition
from fossil-generated to clean power. According to preliminary
estimates, the ETA could generate tens of billions of dollars in
transition finance through 2035.
The three ETA partners announced several key steps for the work
ahead in 2024 and beyond, including:
- Building on the core framework presented at COP28, the partners outlined the ETA's governance
and management structure, to be further elaborated in consultation
with ETA stakeholders, available
at https://www.etaccelerator.org/;
- The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), led by
President Nat Keohane, will serve as the ETA's secretariat.
C2ES has served as a lead coordinator of the ETA since the concept
was introduced at COP27;
- The ETA partners established a new Senior Consultative Group to
provide independent input on the ETA's design and operation, to be
chaired by Secretary Kerry. Additional members will
include Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy
Agency, Arunabha Ghosh, Founder-CEO,
Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Rachel Kyte, Co-Chair, Voluntary Carbon Markets
Integrity Initiative (VCMI), Annette Nazareth, Chair, Integrity
Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, Mary Nichols, Vice Chair, California-China
Climate Institute, Damilola
Ogunbiyi, Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General, and Chief Executive Officer for Sustainable
Energy for All, Co-Chair UN-Energy, and Vera Songwe, Co-Chair, High Level Expert Group
on Climate Finance;
- The Dominican Republic
announced the formation of an inter-ministerial working group led
by the Ministry of Energy and Mines to guide its engagement as an
ETA pilot country, and ongoing support from the World Bank to model
energy transition pathways and the catalytic role of carbon
finance; and
- The government of the
Philippines announced that it will participate in the ETA as
an observer country to develop a deeper understanding of the
initiative and its potential to mobilize finance supporting the
country's energy transition. The
Philippines also hopes to inform the global energy
transition dialogue through its unique perspective of a
privately-owned, market-driven, and unsubsidized power sector.
At the event, the ETA partners and the World Bank highlighted
the deepening strategic collaboration between ETA and the
World Bank, including its Scaling Climate Action by Lowering
Emissions (SCALE) partnership. SCALE aims to mobilize finance for
effective energy transitions by enabling developing countries to be
directly rewarded for verified emissions reductions from a pool of
payments committed by public and private sector contributors.
"We must act now to end poverty on a livable planet," World
Bank Group President Ajay Banga
said. "The intertwined crises we face demand that we act together
with urgency, speed, and scale and do so together. We must work
with our partners to accelerate the clean energy transition,
support forest protection and reward people and communities for
their efforts. This will help countries leverage new sources and
larger volumes of affordable finance through high-integrity carbon
markets. High-integrity voluntary carbon markets could help
transfer resources of wealthier nations to support
development."
"The world cannot meet the temperature goal of the Paris
Agreement without accelerating the clean energy transition in
developing countries even as their economies grow," said
Nat Keohane, President, C2ES.
"The Energy Transition Accelerator is designed to meet this need,
by providing an innovative platform for high-integrity carbon
credits that has the potential to channel tens of billions of
dollars to the clean energy transition – including to ensure a just
transition for local communities – and leverage tens of billions
more. C2ES welcomes the opportunity to help realize this ambitious
vision by serving as the ETA's Secretariat."
According to the International Energy Agency, clean energy
investment in developing and emerging economies excluding
China must increase seven-fold to
$1.9 trillion a year by the early
2030s to keep a 1.5°C limit on warming within reach. The ETA brings
together governments and private sector stakeholders to employ
high-integrity carbon crediting to accelerate the transition from
fossil fuels to clean power in developing countries, delivering
faster, deeper greenhouse gas reductions and improving the lives of
vulnerable people. The sectoral-scale crediting approach being
pioneered by the ETA will incentivize participating countries to
intensify their near-term activities contributing to power sector
decarbonization, including to deploy clean power, retire fossil
fuel assets, enhance storage capacity, transmission, and
distribution, and implement new policy.
About the Bezos Earth Fund:
The Bezos Earth Fund is
helping transform the fight against climate change with the largest
ever philanthropic commitment to climate and nature protection.
Jeff Bezos has committed
$10 billion in this decisive decade
to protect nature and address climate change. By providing funding
and expertise, we partner with organizations to accelerate
innovation, break down barriers to success and create a more
equitable and sustainable world. Join us in our mission to create a
world where people prosper in harmony with nature.
About The Rockefeller Foundation:
The Rockefeller
Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative
partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and
innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to
flourish. We make big bets to promote the well-being of humanity.
Today, we are focused on advancing human opportunity and reversing
the climate crisis by transforming systems in food, health, energy,
and finance. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at
rockefellerfoundation.org and follow us on X
@RockefellerFdn.
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