21st climate conference preparations: donor States meet in Paris
Bern, 05.09.2015 - Climate finance for developing countries will be one of the main topics of the 21st climate conference (COP 21). At the invitation of Switzerland and the United States, ministers from 19 countries that finance international climate change measures are meeting today and tomorrow in Paris in order to clarify finance rules and procedures. Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard has noted the key role that private investments will play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
At the climate conference in Copenhagen (2009), donor countries pledged to raise USD $100 billion annually starting in 2020 to finance climate policy in developing countries, amongst other things through the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
During this fund's initial capitalisation, donors announced public contributions of over 10.2 billion dollars. Switzerland announced a contribution of 100 million dollars that will be paid over three years (2015-2017).
In view of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), a group of 18 donor countries chaired by Switzerland and the United States discussed general questions of climate finance; especially the methodology of climate finance before and after 2020.
Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard pointed out the necessity of implementing instruments that make it possible to report the actual funding from States and the private sector, gain an overview of progress and compare the various contributions. The head of the Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) will lead the debate tonight on climate finance after 2020. Discussions will continue tomorrow on the same topic.
BOX 1
The eighteen donors attending the ministerial meeting
The climate finance donor countries attending the ministerial meeting in Paris on 5 and 6 September 2015 are: Germany, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zeeland, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and the European Union.
BOX 2
Calculating mobilised climate finance
The donor countries agreed in Copenhagen (2009) to mobilise USD $100 billion per year from public and private sources for the purposes of implementing climate policy in developing countries, starting in 2020. The mobilised funds specifically include:
- funds from multilateral public institutions, such as the World Bank, the Global Environment Fund (GEF) or the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and funds from public development institutions and export risk insurance organisations;
- public funds paid as part of bilateral relations, between a donor country and a developing country
- private sector funds for climate friendly activities, particularly from private financial institutions, enterprises, foundations and non-governmental organisations.
Today, the ministers reviewed the conditions and the extent of consideration, if any, that will be given to these various funding sources being credited in the measurement and tracking. The ministers can use the «Common Methodological Approach to Measure and Track Mobilized Private Climate Finance», which was developed by an informal working group created and led by Switzerland. Based on this methodology, the OECD and the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) will present in October in Lima the first assessment of mobilised public and private climate finance in 2013 and 2014.
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