VIDEO: Juliet Davenport on the big clean energy announcements at COP28

Davenport is a highly respected figure in the renewables industry in the UK and on the global stage. She is best known for founding renewable energy company Good Energy and serving as its chief executive until 2021.

Speaking to edie’s publisher Luke Nicholls on the sidelines of the Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum at COP28 in Dubai, Davenport gave her reaction to a major new international commitment on the energy transition, including a goal to treble global renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Spearheaded by the COP28 Presidency, the ‘Global Decarbonisation Accelerator’ has the backing of more than 110 nations but there are some notable absences from the signatory list including China and India.

Davenport said she had heard “very different perspectives” on how this “massive jump” in clean energy generation could become a reality, with practical barriers varying between the Global North and Global South.

She summarised: “We’re going to need to get a lot of things out of the way. Particularly challenging in northern Europe and other developed countries, is going to be existing infrastructure that was built in a different paradigm. The challenges in the emerging countries is going to be the fact that we’re going to have to bring investment into countries that investors don’t like investing in.

“There are some real tensions there.”

For firms headquartered in the UK and other wealthy nations, Davenport’s argued that an in-depth assessment of energy supply chains is “becoming increasingly important”.

Given a reliance on imports from emerging markets, where emissions are growing, she sees UK Plc as having a potentially transformative impact in crowding in investment overseas, with a particular focus on markets that historically have not been attractive to investors.

edie at COP28

Want more exclusive content from the grounds of COP28? edie is running a daily podcast show live from the ground in Dubai, featuring exclusive interviews with some of sustainability’s sharpest minds. Check out the COP28 Covered podcast here.

We’re also running a live blog during COP28. From a rousing speech from King Charles to new international declarations on health and agriculture, the COP28 Live Blog gives you everything you need to know about each day at the Summit.

View all of edie’s COP28 content here.