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Top corporate chiefs laud Climate Tech initiative

ESG considerations will soon underpin the value creation thesis

Walid Sheta, President, Middle East & Africa. Schneider Electric, said: "I was privileged to take part in the Hydrogen Dialogue organised today at UAE Climate Tech. Our strategic relationship with the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology team, as well as all our government partners, is crucial in defining a path that facilitates lowering emissions and transition towards net zero. We at Schneider Electric consider Hydrogen as an essential part of the energy equation to achieve our global ambition. I must stress that it is important for industry leaders to work within the public private partnerships framework on three key fronts: Technology, Policy, and Finance In Technology, we need to accelerate the innovation cycle to advance solutions that help decarbonize harder-to-abate sectors currently using natural gas or fuel derivates, such as in chemicals, metals production, aviation, marine, and long-distance shipping. From the policy standpoint, industry leaders such as Schneider Electric can share their expertise in supporting governments via our global know-how, and help, for example, to design incentives for a cleaner economy, advocate international cooperation on Green H2 topics and other regulatory initiatives. As for finance, we can also drive innovation close the investment and operational cost gaps, including research and development funding, risk mitigation policies, and co-funding of large prototypes and demonstration projects to decrease the cost of capital.”

Rishi Kapoor, Co-CEO at Investcorp, said: “There is a shift away from ESG as an asset class and into a core objective of all investing – as central to asset allocation as risk and return are right now. ESG considerations, specifically sustainability, will soon underpin the value creation thesis of private market investors, from original investment through ongoing portfolio management, to final exit. At Investcorp, we are seeing increasing interest in sustainability, with our megatrends survey showing that climate change and the transition to Net Zero in particular is amongst the top secular trends that will define the shape of the global economic and investment landscape over the next several decades. It is clear that global commitments towards reduction in greenhouse gas emissions represent the biggest impact investment in history, with the drive towards decarbonization necessitating the establishment of entirely new industries and value chains. We believe that decarbonization will trigger the biggest capital reallocation since the Second World War, which presents an opportunity for public- and private-sector investors to effect meaningful change by investing in the technologies and the infrastructure to enable us to collectively meet the objective of limiting the effects of climate change through meaningful reduction in GHG emissions.”