President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, led a high-level delegation to the "United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)'s 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21)" under way in Paris, France. Addressing a side event dubbed: "Climate Change: Financing and Capacity Building Challenges", organized by IDB Group in collaboration with the African Development Bank, Dr. Ali expressed his pleasure to see 51 of IDB Group member countries amongst the more than 180 countries had submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), adding that it was a welcome development and a turning point in the global efforts to address climate change and transform to a climate-resilient global economy. The IDB Group president stated that financing and capacity building featured prominently in the INDCs as two major areas for preserving environment. "While multiple sources for climate financing exist including global climate funds from public and private sectors and multilateral development banks, the resource gap is still wide," he said. "There are many countries that need technical assistance and capacity building to be able to develop and deploy climate-smart technology as well as training on how to implement international agreement and integrate them into their national climate action plans," he added. According to Dr. Ali, the IDB Group, in 2014, launched its Renewable Energy for Poverty Reduction Program to address the energy challenges of its member countries via application of renewable energy resources. He stated that the Bank will continue to work with other multilateral development banks (MDBs) in order to improve climate resilience of transport systems, and increase awareness on the need to protect transport services by building a more systematic approach to mainstreaming climate resilience in transport policies, plans and investments. The IDB Group President called on the participants to further exchange expertise on climate change issues in order to bridge the resources gap. He added that the Islamic financial industry is currently playing an important role in supporting mega socio-economic and environmental projects. The UN conference on climate change convened on Nov. 30 with 150 heads of states and government representatives, and about 10,000 participants from around the globe are attending this event. The climate change conference is the largest UN gathering outside the annual UN general assembly meeting. It is also the biggest diplomatic forum ever in the history of France. The conference is expected to reach a historic agreement on how to collectively reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
