Green Climate Fund – Berlin Pledging Conference

The November 2014 climate finance pledging conference is the time to fill the finance gap

The Ban Ki-Moon Climate Summit in September squarely placed climate finance onto the world political agenda. Mobilising finance for climate action was marked by the summit as a key intended outcome.1 Finance pledges, in part, acted as a barometer for the progress on agreeing a new international climate agreement as countries prepare to meet for the UN Climate Negotiations (COP20) in Lima. The September summit held in New York was a crucial moment for identifying the levels of ambition countries were gearing up for as they head to Lima to continue the process of reaching a new international climate agreement in Paris in December 2015. Unfortunately, the commitments made so far have been woefully low.

The amount finally pledged to the GCF in September totalled just $2.3bn[2]; this final figure highlights the continued and worrying gap in financial support for climate action. However as the table shows, new pledges have been made in November and the fund now has $7.9 bn. Despite these new pledges, there is still a lack of clarity on how developed countries plan to scale up climate finance, as the demands for mitigation and adaptation continue to grow.

This week presents the next opportunity for EU member states to make ambitious pledges, at the first GCF pledging conference[3] taking place in Berlin – 19th -20th November. The GCF aims to distribute $US 10bn over the next few years. CAN Europe is calling on those “quieter” EU member states to step up to the plate and pledge commitments in line with the EU’s fair share, both towards the initial capitalisation of the GCF as well as towards the 100 billion dollar finance goal, figures of 5 billion EUR and 24.3 billion EUR respectively.

The lack of ambitious contributions and the poor track record of some private finance projects e.g. the Jirau Dam project in Brazil[4]; highlights the urgency for having greater clarity on global climate finance as well as continued emphasis on increasing public finance.

Both developed country’s willingness to contribute finance for climate action, coupled with the willingness of individual developing countries to alter their economy’s trajectory towards a sustainable society, are crucial elements to positive and pro-active discussions and outcomes. This week’s pledging conference needs to reflect on the importance of concerted trust between donors and recipients and demonstrate that pledges speak louder than words.

Key Climate Finance dates:

November 19th – 20th 2014: Pledging Conference – Berlin

December 1st– 12th 2014: COP 20 – Lima

December 17th 2014: Environment Council – European Union, Brussels

February 8th -13th 2015: Third session of the ADP – Geneva

July 13th – 16th 2015: Finance for Development Conference – Addis Adaba

November-December 2015: COP 21 – Paris agreement