Community Jameel joins Climate Finance Mobilisation Forum at Windsor Castle with King Charles III and President Biden

Community Jameel joined today with private companies and philanthropies to participate in the Climate Finance Mobilisation Forum at Windsor Castle, convened by the British secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Grant Shapps, and the United States special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry. The forum was attended by His Majesty King Charles III and United States president Joe Biden and aimed to galvanise investment by private actors to tackle climate change in the run-up to the 28th conference of the parties to the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change – known as COP28 – in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), this winter.

The Community Jameel delegation – led by Fady Jameel, vice chairman – highlighted the importance of investing in science and research in emerging markets and developing economies as a way of unlocking the potential for talented, under-resourced researchers to help tackle climate change, locally and around the world.

Community Jameel supports and has helped co-found a number of centres of excellence and initiatives that apply science to tackle climate change. These include the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is, among various projects, building the Jameel Index for Food Trade and Vulnerability; the Jameel Observatory, a collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and MIT that launched in Nairobi, and which is focused on using data and evidence to prepare for and act on environmental shocks; and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), which applies a Nobel prize-winning experimental approach to developing effective programmes and policies, including for tackling climate change and in the field of clean air and water.

In 2023, the Jameel Observatory Climate Resilience Early Warning System Network (CREWSnet) was selected as an Innovation Sprint of the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C), a joint initiative of the United States and the UAE to catalyse investment in agricultural innovation in the face of climate change.

George Richards, director of Community Jameel, said: “Community Jameel seeks to tackle food insecurity through agricultural innovation and climate-smart agriculture. Ahead of COP28 this year, Community Jameel is scaling up its funding for climate, including through the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet, a platform forecasting climate change to inform communities’ adaptive responses and which has been selected as an AIM4C Innovation Sprint.”

AIM4C featured prominently at the Windsor forum, alongside the Sustainable Markets Initiative, founded by The King, and other collaborative efforts to mobilise financing to tackle climate change.

Other attendees at the Windsor forum included His Excellency Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE special envoy for climate change and president-delegate for COP28; Mark Carney, UN special envoy for climate action and finance and co-chair, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ); Tony Elumelu, chairman, United Bank for Africa; Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock; Dr Andrew Forrest, founder and chairman, Minderoo Foundation; Brian Moynihan, chair and chief executive officer, Bank of America; Dame Alison Rose, chief executive officer, NatWest Group; Lukas Walton, founder and chief executive officer, Builders Vision; and Bill Winters, group chief executive, Standard Chartered.