What happened behind the scenes at COP28

Since returning from Dubai, I’ve been asked a dozen times: “So, what is the real value of COP?” 

But while the spotlight at COP28 was on the (sometimes fraught) government negotiations, the private sector was very active behind the scenes in Dubai. Even as someone who has been working with the private sector on climate solutions for 15 years, I was surprised by the level of innovation and action—in everyone from top corporate and infrastructure leaders to founders of groundbreaking startups. But COP also highlighted how far we have to go, and the ways in which we need the private sector to move even faster. 

Innovation at all levels is necessary to achieve climate goals that governments pledge to reach. For example, half of the climate technologies we need aren’t yet widely commercially available. And for the first time, new technology companies were invited to COP and showed up in force, in two pavilions and a “startup village.” These entrepreneurs have water, energy, agriculture, industrial, and transportation solutions that are ready to scale, and are showing what’s possible with the right mix of people and capital.

The nonprofit climate technology investor I lead, Elemental Excelerator, is always looking for the edge of where capital will deploy and applying new ways of funding to ensure that important climate technologies can find their way to scale. More than a dozen of our Elemental portfolio companies attended COP, as did companies from our spinout fund Earthshot Ventures.

COP28 felt like an accelerant for deploying new mixes of capital—including multiple projects announced by Elemental portfolio companies. One is Fervo, a clean energy startup that collaborated with Google and other partners to turn on a first-of-its-kind advanced geothermal power project that’s now generating carbon-free electricity in Nevada. Another is Energy Dome, which just announced a $65 million investment from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and others to store energy for up to 24 hours at a cost far below that of current batteries. The project is expected to come online in 2024. 

These are just two of the many projects that were announced at COP. Both took creativity and leadership to get over the line. Both required “blended capital”—a term often overheard at COP—that means a mix of private, philanthropic, corporate, and government funding. We’re starting to finally see the creative deployment of capital at a meaningful scale, but much more is needed. 

Any COP climate agreement requires a thousand conversations to implement. One CEO told me that a serendipitous, 45-minute discussion with an investor at COP was more valuable than a month of video calls. Countless conversations like these happened in Dubai. We need these conversations to result in more capital allocation and other concrete action in the near term.  

In addition to advancing deals directly, the private sector also needs to play an increasing role in advocating for strong action from political leaders. This is especially important to counter the influence of countries and companies whose wealth and futures are tied to fossil fuels. Last week, I joined leaders of more than 2,000 major companies and institutions to call for COP negotiators to prioritize an orderly phase out of all fossil fuels in a just and equitable way, and to set up an enabling environment to scale up—and shift—public and private finance. 

One example of shifting private finance comes from our partner the Rockefeller Foundation, which became the first major foundation to shift its endowment, which is $6 billion, to net zero by 2050. It’s real as well as symbolic, as the foundation’s initial endowment was largely a result of proceeds from Standard Oil. This is a strong example for other foundations and funds to urgently follow. 

The real value of COP is what comes next. As former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres said Wednesday, the agreement “gives us hope that the transformation remains unstoppable. . . . We believe that the proof of this lies in the actions we have seen, beyond the words on a page.” The private sector momentum is unlikely to cross a general newsfeed, but the collective impact of these actions are profound—and needs to accelerate.