The Covid-19 global pandemic offers a unique opportunity to rebuild “better and more sustainably“. This is the message the EU Council wanted to convey in a draft declaration approved by the Economic and Financial Committee on 13 November 2020, which calls for scaling up international climate finance.
The draft text expresses the EU’s determination to further intensify the mobilisation of international climate finance as part of the collective developed countries' goal to jointly mobilise together $100 billion per year by 2020 and through to 2025 to support mitigation and adaptation efforts of developing countries.
The text welcomes the fact that public contributions are steadily increasing and that the EU and its Member States remain the largest public contributor to international climate finance in developing countries, with a contribution of around €22 billion in 2019.
It stresses as well the importance of meeting the financing targets for COP26 and calls on other developed countries to increase their contributions.
Member States also call on all national, regional and multilateral financial institutions to strengthen their support for climate action and sustainable development, both during and after the Covid-19 crisis.
Last week, the European Investment Bank (EIB) pledged to mobilise one trillion euros in support of investment in climate and environmental sustainability projects in the period 2021-2030 (see EUROPE 12600/37). The declaration encourages other multilateral development banks to follow this example.
The text also calls on all countries to create enabling environments for green and sustainable investments in order to facilitate the mobilisation of private financing.
Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) are expected to give the green light on Wednesday 18 November to the adoption of the declaration by written procedure. See text: https://bit.ly/3ptlUgd (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)