The 100,000 sqm advanced site will develop eco-friendly cold-chain mobility solutions

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – 30 June 2025: Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi – KEZAD Group, one of the largest operators of integrated and purpose-built economic zones in the region and SINGAUTO, a Singapore-based tech innovator have announced the signing of a 50-year land lease agreement to establish a state-of-the-art facility in KEZAD Area A (KEZAD Al Ma’mourah).

SINGAUTO has committed AED 100 million in investments to build a 100,000 square metre advanced facility focused on developing green logistics solutions. The new site will integrate SINGAUTO’s latest smart technologies to manufacture intelligent refrigerated vehicles to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of cold-chain logistics across the region.

The facility will launch operations with an expert team of over 100 professionals, each with more than 15 years of industry experience, ensuring the delivery of services aligned with top-tier international standards.

Abdullah Al Hameli, CEO, Economic Cities and Free Zones said: “We welcome SINGAUTO to KEZAD’s thriving industrial ecosystem for sustainable automotive businesses. Their presence supports our goal to add value to the region’s logistics and automotive sectors, while driving green innovation that benefits all stakeholders.

“The automotive sector is a strategic priority for us, especially in alignment with our strong commitment to sustainability. KEZAD Group and SINGAUTO share a unified vision to accelerate the future of green mobility. With SINGAUTO’s cutting-edge solutions improving cold-chain logistics, this project represents a significant step toward strengthening our sustainable transport capabilities and reinforcing KEZAD’s role in shaping a resilient, future-ready supply chain.”

Chen Xuefeng, CEO, SINGAUTO said: “We are confident that operating within KEZAD’s integrated automotive ecosystem will provide us with the ideal foundation for scaling our business and meeting the region’s demand for eco-friendly, high-efficiency logistics. We look forward to leveraging KEZAD’s specialised support to produce smart, sustainable commercial vehicles tailored to the needs of the regional cold-chain sector.”

This initiative is part of KEZAD Group’s broader vision to develop a fully integrated automotive hub, offering modern infrastructure, advanced logistics support, and a business-friendly environment that drives innovation and growth. The partnership with SINGAUTO marks a significant milestone in KEZAD’s mission to become the global hub of excellence for automotive and logistics industries.

Even as 2025 risks becoming a year of deferral on climate action, key moments ahead—from FFD4 in Seville, which aims to reform global finance, to COP30 in Brazil—offer a chance to revive trust, scale ambition, and restore multilateralism’s promise

The world is heading into one of its most crowded and consequential climate calendars in years. Between this month’s UN negotiations in Bonn, the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Spain’s Seville, and the COP30 summit in Brazil’s Belem, 2025 was supposed to be a year of delivery. Instead, it’s shaping up to be a year of deferral — where political gridlock, global conflicts, and financial shortfalls are threatening to derail progress on the world’s most urgent agenda.

This poses more than just a diplomatic problem. It signals the need for international multilateralism to stay credible in a world increasingly defined by war, resource nationalism, and widening inequality.

June’s climate talks in Bonn were meant to prepare the ground for meaningful action at COP30 in November. What they helped bring out was a preview of the fault lines that continue to plague global climate diplomacy. The talks began with a procedural deadlock after developing countries—led by India and the G77+China—called for climate finance to be formally prioritised on the agenda – their position rooted in legal commitments under the Paris Agreement and long-standing unmet promises. Developed countries resisted this push, citing economic and geopolitical pressures and the cost of multiple ongoing wars.

And while the developing nations’ push back to this response by developed ones is along expected lines, it is hardly helpful to bring about a resolution. Richer countries have pointed to economic pressures and ongoing conflicts. Yet, it is tough to ignore the developing nations’ argument that without adequate, predictable finance, talk of higher climate ambition is “just rhetoric.” The Baku-to-Belém Roadmap — a commitment to mobilise $1.3 trillion annually in climate finance by 2030 — is crippled without binding mechanisms, burden-sharing framework among developed countries, and clarity on grant-based versus market-rate finance.

While the recent announcement of a $250 million initial disbursement from the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, could be seen as some progress, it is also woefully inadequate in the face of mounting climate devastation and a reminder of the persistent failure by wealthy nations to provide the scale of finance urgently needed.

The OECD has warned that without systemic reform in 2025, the gap between the development finance needs for poorer countries and the available resources could balloon to US$ 6.4 trillion by 2030. Key funding access barriers for developing nations – including creditworthiness filters, fiscal ceilings imposed by the International Monetary Fund, and slow disbursement by Multilateral Development Banks – need urgent reforms.

Finance, Reform, and a Shrinking Pie

The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), scheduled in July, is supposed to focus on fixing the architecture that delivers climate and development finance. And while expectations remain subdued, the test will be the implementation of the newly launched Sevilla Platform for Action, being put forward by Spain in collaboration with the UN.

While this outcome document was adopted in the absence of the US because the world’s largest economy withdrew from the process having objected to proposed UN involvement in debt negotiations and calls to triple MDB lending, it still holds hope by keeping the focus on what matters.

It’s perhaps befitting that the conference is being held at a time when temperatures in Seville are expected to hit 47°C — a timely reminder of climate impacts amid the backdrop of mounting global economic pressures.

As it is, developing nations are facing funding challenges including deep UN budget cuts, shrinking aid flows and escalating conflicts. In 2023 alone, developing countries spent $1.4 trillion servicing external debt, with interest payments at a 20-year high -– signalling the need for urgent reforms to the global financial systems to make funds available to tackle climate challenges while ensuring economic growth. This makes the FFD4 conversations more crucial as planned discussions include ways to make public spending more effective and improve domestic revenue collection, strengthening collaboration between multilateral and national development banks and expanding local currency financing.

Beefing up BRICS

These very themes are also likely to come up at the BRICS Summit where the heads of states from major emerging economies are expected to demand fairer, more effective international climate finance and technology transfer. The grouping, which has now beefed up its ranks much beyond the initial members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to 11 full members, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Iran now represents 40% of the world’s economy.

The bloc has, for the first time, forged a unified position on climate funding — just months before FFD4 and COP30 — when it approved a joint climate finance framework that calls for reforming multilateral development banks, scaling up concessional finance, and mobilising private capital to support climate action in the Global South. A move that’s even more important in the context of an evident backtracking on climate by European leadership.

French President Emmanuel Macron has openly called for a “pause” in new EU environmental regulations and for delaying the adoption of the bloc’s 2040 climate target at the June 2025 EU summit in Brussels, citing concerns over competitiveness and economic strain. This shift, echoed by other European countries, risks eroding the EU’s credibility as a climate leader just as BRICS is consolidating its influence and presenting itself as an alternative centre of gravity in global climate negotiations, especially at a time of a vacuum created by the absence of US leadership.

This EU stance also signals that Brazil will have a tougher job of building consensus at the COP30.

The Cost of Conflict

Yet, the biggest tectonic shift threatening climate conversations this year is a world in conflict. The wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and now the broader Middle East are not only driving up defense budgets—they are crowding out development and climate finance. Global military expenditure hit a record $2.7 trillion in 2024, with the US, China, Russia and Germany accounting for 60% of the total.

Recent analysis shows that NATO countries alone spent 52 times more on their militaries than they delivered in climate finance to the world’s poorest countries. Militaries themselves are major emitters, responsible for an estimated 5.5% of global greenhouse gases. As defense budgets rise, the fiscal and political space for climate action shrinks.

Wars not only divert resources, they change political appetites. In an era of securitised diplomacy, climate issues are struggling to remain at the top of the agenda.

COP30: Brazil’s Test

Against this backdrop, Brazil has laid out an ambitious agenda for COP30: accelerating renewables, curbing deforestation, advancing energy efficiency, and enabling a just transition. But Brazil’s own officials have also been clear — without concrete progress on finance, many countries simply will not sign on to higher ambition.

This is a recognition that for much of the Global South, climate action without finance is no longer politically or economically tenable. India, Brazil, AOSIS, and the African Group are aligned in holding the line on finance, equity, and the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities. These meetings — Bonn, FFD4, BRICS and COP30 — are the scaffolding holding up a fragile international consensus on how the world manages climate risk. But if consensus frays and if the financial and political imbalances continue to deepen, the foundations of multilateralism will begin to crack.

About The Author

Traditional models of aid are no longer fit-for-purpose.

The global challenges we face, are becoming increasingly complex and interconnected. The world is shifting rapidly. Our approach to development is changing too.

Next week in Seville, Spain, the world will come together for the Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) to set out a new vision for how we can collectively use finance to drive global progress on development over the next decade – tackling the climate and nature crisis, investing in health and education, and creating growth and jobs.

It comes at a critical moment. Unprecedented levels of conflict and the impact of climate change are driving record humanitarian needs and threaten to reverse decades of development gains. We must make choices on how we use public funding innovatively and raise greater volumes of finance from all sources, including the private sector.

Global South countries want a different relationship, and we are ready to offer a new approach. One based on listening; offering partnership not paternalism; sharing expertise; acting as investors, not donors, supporting countries to raise their own finances and driving reform across the Global Financial System. Global prosperity and security are crucial for delivering on our Plan For Change in the UK too.

The summit in Seville must set a clear roadmap towards achieving three major changes.

First, we will show we have listened to countries by helping them raise their own revenues. They have told us they want to become self-sufficient so we will offer partnership and expertise to help them build their own tax and economic systems, so that in time, they can thrive without aid.

This means tackling money lost through crime and corruption. The UN estimates that Africa loses $90 billion to illicit finance flows, undermining public finances but also public institutions, affecting trust, political stability and national security. This hidden money is a problem for us all.

We will work with partners to take urgent action on unsustainable debt. More than 50 per cent of lower-income countries are either in, or at high risk of, debt distress.

That is why we are championing reform, so countries with unsustainable debt get quick and effective support. We are also pressing for more responsible and transparent lending, and have championed Climate Resilient Debt Clauses, which pause debt repayments when crises hit.

Secondly, we know the costs of solving these challenges cannot be met by governments alone. We need more investment from the private sector. Through the City of London, the UK is a world-leading green financial hub. We are well placed to lead the charge, providing opportunities for UK businesses and investors and ultimately unlocking growth, jobs and trade.

Only a small fraction of the money from big investors like pension funds currently goes to low- and middle-income countries. Shifting this by even a small amount would be game-changing for financing development and climate action. That is why the UK has recently set up an industry-led Investor Taskforce – bringing together investors and government to take action that will unlock more private capital for emerging markets and developing economies. We will launch a coalition in Seville that aims to help unlock trillions of pounds in untapped high-quality investment for developing countries through use of public markets.

Finally, we must focus on making the international system work better for developing countries, creating a fairer system where they have greater voice and participation to shape the outcomes they need. That is why the UK is calling for just this in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

We also need to ensure countries can better manage climate shocks. Since 2015, 1.7 billion people’s lives have been devastated by the climate crisis. Despite the fact that we can predict and model over a third of climate events, just 2 per cent of crisis finance is pre-arranged and ready to go before a disaster strikes. Putting finance in place ahead of disasters means it can be immediately released to countries and communities in moments of crisis.

Tackling this is vital to ensure long-term growth and development.

The launch of the global coalition in Seville will also enable us to scale up availability of pre-arranged finance, working with the UK insurance industry towards an ambition of increasing it tenfold by 2035.

No nation can tackle global challenges alone. Seville must be the beginning of a new chapter in how we work together to deliver global development.

Baroness Chapman of Darlington is the minister of state for international development, Latin America and the Caribbean

This piece is part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid series

The UN’s 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) brings together political and financial leaders at a pivotal moment – a decade on from the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and with COP30 approaching – to discuss what must urgently change to get finance flowing for climate and development goals.

Following tense negotiations last week in Bonn, but positive signals from many governments and non-state actors at London Climate Action Week, FfD provides an opportunity for governments to show there is both a collective will and a plan to take action to support developing countries and ensure a more sustainable and secure future.

Against a backdrop of rising debt burdens and donor countries slashing aid budgets and increasingly aligning aid with national interests, the talks in Seville are a chance to:

Show that there is a way forward tofree up fiscal space in developing countries, including mobilising new debt instruments and a commitment toconsider reprofiling lending terms when necessary for development goals.

Implement targeted regulatory reforms to mobilise private capital,including by bringing theprivate sector into the centre of development finance by aligning prudential regulation with climate objectives, anduse aid to reducethe risks the private sector faces in deploying capital in unfamiliar places.

Create a more effective delivery architecture for international finance, including using country platforms to align public and private investment around national priorities and strengthening the role of national development banks and sub-national actors.

Increase the scale of climate finance, including advancing specific measures to accelerate reform of the multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the international financial architecture and rebuilding political will to commit international public finance for climate and development.

Support Brazil’s COP30 Presidency in advancing the Baku to Belem Roadmap to $1.3 trillion.

E3G’s new report, Getting on the Path to $1.3 Trillion, launched at London Climate Action Week, sets out a long-term vision across these topics for increasing the mobilisation of finance to developing countries, and provides recommendations for what can realistically be achieved in the next 1-2 years.

Quotes

Rob Moore, E3G Associate Director, Public Banks and Development, said:

The Fourth International Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) in Seville will convene critical discussions about how to reshape the global financial architecture in an era of converging crises. As we grapple with persistent development challenges and the escalating impacts of climate change, this conference presents a vital moment to re-evaluate how climate and development finance intersect.

These deliberations come at an opportune moment, and with a deadline on the horizon: last year at COP29 in Baku, climate negotiators agreed to an ambitious target to mobilize $1.3 trillion by 2035 to support developing countries in meeting their climate targets. The task at hand is now to deliver on this goal by developing a ‘Baku to Belem Roadmap’ that guides the transformation of our current climate finance system, unlocking drastically higher sums of finance and boosting the quality and impact of those funds.

While negotiations on the climate finance goal concluded in Baku, the politics of climate finance remain challenging. Unresolved tensions over developed country obligations to provide greater public resources derailed the opening of the Bonn Climate Conference last week, delaying urgent talks intended to set the agenda for COP30. Still, we walked away from Bonn with a more conciliatory, but tenuous, spirit to work constructively with the COP30 Presidency and others to build an impactful framework for enhanced climate finance.

Now, as FfD4 gets underway, it will be vital to consider how proposed reforms within the broader financial architecture can help move climate finance in the right direction. The reality is clear: our conversations on development finance and climate finance are intrinsically connected. Whether we’re striving to reach the ambitious $1.3 trillion target in climate finance or scale up financing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we need to think about them holistically as discussions unfold from Bonn to Seville and onward to Belem at COP30.

Here are the intertwining themes and opportunities to align progress for climate and development finance:

Scale up finance by mobilizing every available finance tool and solution.

The sheer scale of the climate challenge means no single source of finance will be sufficient. Public finance from developed countries will remain central to support a just energy transition and fulfill obligations under the Paris Agreement. In addition, further work is needed to support developing countries in raising domestic revenue, mainly through more robust tax regimes (noting ongoing discussions around a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation), as well as preventing illicit financial flows exiting their economies.

Equally important is private sector investment, which must be strategically leveraged to align global financial flows with the Paris Agreement. The “Billions to Trillions” concept was a major focus at the last Financing for Development conference in 2015, centered on leveraging public money to mobilize vast private investment. Unfortunately, the concept has not come to fruition—but the opportunity still stands.

We must push for innovative ways to catalyze private sector action: a comprehensive toolkit that opens the door to all stakeholders to engage based on their capacities and needs.

This involves de-risking investments, creating enabling environments, and using innovative financial instruments – such as green bonds, blended finance and carbon market revenues.

Reimagine our finance system to ensure the money reaches those who need it most. The climate finance system remains difficult to navigate and costly – developing countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis often face the highest barriers to accessing and affording support. Without ensuring that climate finance is actually reaching those who need it most as agents of change, our efforts could fall flat. Reforms must be inclusive, engaging all stakeholders in finding solutions that improve readiness and capacity, open channels for direct access, and tackle the high cost of capital in developing countries which discourages private investment.

Boost the impact of every dollar by investing in actions that accomplish both climate and sustainable development goals.

Taking advantage of synergies is essential – especially when public resources remain scarce. For example, funding renewable energy projects not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions (climate goal) but also creates green jobs (SDG 8), improves air quality (SDG 3), and expands energy access in underserved communities (SDG 7). Similarly, investing in sustainable agriculture practices can enhance food security (SDG 2) and rural livelihoods (SDG 1) while simultaneously sequestering carbon (climate goal). By strategically allocating resources to initiatives that generate these co-benefits, we can achieve more with less, accelerating progress towards a more equitable and resilient future for all.

Align FfD4 with the Baku to Belem Roadmap

The FfD4 outcome document, approved ahead of the conference, offers promising potential to align climate and development finance priorities. It is encouraging to see clear language on the need for reforms to lower the cost of capital, scale affordable and accessible resources, and better align with the goals of the climate funds to maximize their potential.

As the COP29 and COP30 Presidencies continue efforts to design the Baku to Belem Roadmap, they should reflect relevant elements from the FfD4 outcome as part of the pathway to scaling climate finance, holding stakeholders to account for what they have agreed to across processes. After all, these efforts are complementary, and aligning pathways in the same direction will be essential to making them a reality.

More than ever, we must find the most impactful, fast, and fair pathways toward building a more equitable and resilient world. There has never been a stronger opportunity to align our efforts and ensure finance allows us to mitigate emissions, enhance adaptation, and improve lives and livelihoods all at once. Aligning our ongoing efforts around climate finance in the UNFCCC, sustainable development finance at FfD, and other critical environmental processes is key to unlocking the better future we all seek.