S01 WFES Dailies 2025_Day 03_Start_Layout 1 16/01/2025 14:08 Page 1
DAILY NEWS
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DAY 3 | 16 JANUARY 2025 Today 03
Green financing takes centre stage at World Future Energy Summit Panel sessions around green financing commenced on the last day of the World Future Energy Summit. Razvan Dumitrescu, Head of Sustainable Finance at Emirates NBD Capital, spoke about key regional developments in sustainable finance, including regulatory changes and the rise of green loans. Rawan Oueidat CFA, Director, Corporate Ratings, S&P Global Ratings, discussed how ESG factors are incorporated into their credit rating analysis. Grave importance was also given to themes such as sovereign wealth funds, Islamic finance, and mobilising capital in the Global South at the Green Finance conference.
(L-R): Vikram Raju, Managing Director and Head of Climate Investments, Morgan Stanley Investment Management; Athmane Benzerroq, Chief Strategy Transformation Sustainability Officer, ADNOC Distribution; Karim Arslan, Executive Director, Green & Sustainable Finance Originator, Green & Sustainable Hub, Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking; Razvan Dumitrescu, Head of Sustainable Finance, Emirates NBD Capital.
Sustainable cities
Hydrogen
Entrepreneurship
Should cities be self-sufficient?
All eyes on hydrogen
Spotlighting AI innovators
The opening panel session at the Sustainable Cities Conference addressed the question of whether cities can and should become truly self-sufficient, managing their needs for energy, food, water and other resources. Abdullatif Albitawi, CEO, Emirates Green Building Council, said, “To do this, we need to first of all manage our demand for these resources, and then reduce consumption and improve efficiencies. Then we go to the step where we produce the resources, and this is where we apply energy management, water management and so on.”
Ivana Jemelkova, CEO of the Hydrogen Council, used her platform on the Green Hydrogen Summit to express that while “hydrogen is happening”, it is imperative that the community remains focused in order to fully realise the potential of the resource as a key contributor to the global energy transition. She added that collaboration is essential to ensuring the hydrogen “success story” is continued.
New this year at the World Future Energy Summit is CLIXai, part of the CLIX programme and showcase, which is spotlighting AI innovations from 10 trailblazing female-founded, owned and operated startups: Fairatmos, GoCodeGreen, GreenEnco Ltd, LivNSense GreenOps Private Limited, NiCAT, Olive Gaea, Seabex SAS, umgrauemeio, Ziptrax Cleantech, and Kamma Climate. The feature exemplifies the synergy between AI and climate action, strengthening collaboration and dialogue to address critical global issues.
Driving behavioural change, addressing the mobility issue, technological advancements, creating a business case and the importance of sharing best practices were stressed during the session.
Elsewhere, on the Innovation Stage, creative technology providers took the opportunity to present their creative solutions that could help to facilitate the hydrogen economy and, ultimately, achieve global decarbonisation. Learn more on Page 3.
At the CLIXai sessions, the female innovators were given the opportunity to pitch their companies to potential investors. They attracted a lot of interest given that AI is a hot topic.