Funding Essential for Generating Action on Ground, Secretary-General Says

 

in Remarks to Cancun Side Event on Climate Change Financing

 

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s opening remarks to the side event of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Sixteenth Conference of Parties side event on the Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, in Cancun, today, 8 December:

Climate financing is one of the most important aspects of our efforts to address the climate change challenge.  It is not a panacea for the climate problem, but it is crucial to have adequate financial support for developing countries and for building trust between countries.  And it is essential for generating actions on the ground.

Earlier this year, I established a High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, and asked Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway to chair it.  And I thank them for co-chairing this important initiative during the last year.

The Group was asked to identify new, innovative and additional sources of financing to meet the goal of $100 billion a year by 2020 that was among the political commitments made last year at the Fifteenth Conference of Parties in Copenhagen.

These funds are to be mobilized by developed countries to assist developing countries — in particular those communities that are poorest and most vulnerable — to improve climate resilience, curb greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainable development.

The Group concluded that this goal of mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 is challenging but feasible, even in the context of the ongoing global recession.

There is no silver bullet — no “one size fits all” solution for raising these funds.  We will need a variety of public and private sectorsources.  But with political will, leadership, appropriate public policy signals for the markets, and financial ingenuity, it can be done.

Financing for climate change is not about charity.  Of course, it is important to do the right thing for those who did least to cause this climate change phenomenon.  But ultimately, climate financing is an investment in a safer, more stable, healthier and prosperous world for us all.

The distinguished Advisory Group has shown a way forward.  It is up to Parties to consider the options.  I urge you to anchor the Group’s important findings and recommendations in your negotiations.

I am now pleased to invite the Group’s co-chairs, Prime Minister Meles and Prime Minister Stoltenberg, to share their insights.

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For information media • not an official record