“To get government and private capital flowing freely on this scale, the Green Climate Fund needs to become a trusted avenue for developing climate funding to the best effect and it needs to offer compelling route for private sector capital to engage in bigger climate investments in the developing world,” Ms. Figueres said.
Under the Green Climate Fund, a long-term financial support agreed upon in the Cancun climate talks, industrialized countries committed to a goal of jointly collecting $100 billion yearly up to 2020. It will be financed by both public and private sources which will be used for climate change mitigation actions.
The executive secretary pointed out that the launching of the fund is one of the significant decisions that nations reached in the previous climate conference. This shows that governments can take repeated steps forward, especially this year in Durban.
She emphasized that the fund must become the window into an era of vastly greater financing for climate action.
“I am convinced that as governments, industry and investors increasingly realize that a low-carbon future in a world resilient to climate change is not only necessary but sustainable and profitable, then the necessary finance will flow faster than many now expect,” she said.
“A well-designed Green Climate Fund will help ensure that this happens sooner rather than later,” she added.
Going back to the workshop held in Bangkok just this April, Ms. Figueres also encouraged governments to make good in their commitments which included the fund.
Transitional committee
The Transitional Committee is composed of 40 finance and climate change experts from both developed and developing countries. Their task is to propose an effective design for the fund in time for the next United Nations climate conference.
In addition, the committee will make special efforts to encourage input from all parties and from relevant government and non-governmental organizations and the private sector. These bodies can contribute their insights to the design of the fund.
On its latest meeting, held in Mexico on April 28, the committee elected three co-chairs, including Mexican finance minister Ernesto Cordero Arroyo, South African minister in the presidency for planning Trevor Manuel, and Norway’s state secretary at the ministry of finance Kjetil Lund.
The next climate conference, known as the Conference of Parties 17, will take place on the 28th of November to the 9th of December 2011 in Durban, South Africa.
