There’s a bold acceleration of climate goals by governments across Middle and North Africa with a commitment to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Although this move encouraged hundreds of major corporations to establish a new tone on climate, more needs to be done. 

Experts say the private sector can encourage climate adaptation projects by speeding commitment, execution capacity, and resource availability.

According to Princess Noura Turki Al-Saud, a founding partner of AEON Strategy, a catalyst event is required to persuade the private sector to scale up renewable and sustainable energy projects to facilitate the switch to green fuel.

Speaking at the International Association for Energy Economics Conference, Princess Noura urged greater participation from private businesses while praising the impact of the 2016 Paris Agreement. She said that it “brought in the private sector.”

Stressing the need for these pilot initiatives to be developed further, she said, “That would come with private sector involvement, and for the private sector to be involved and putting that capital that is necessary to drive innovation and to scale up these technologies and to find the necessary solutions, you need to have strong governance and transparency.”

She added that the Paris Agreement had drawn civil society and the financial industry into the discussion. “That in itself created the conversation that is wider than what’s just happening within the negotiation rooms, which is a process that takes, I would say, more than decades.”