Climate finance is integral to addressing climate change and helping developing countries adapt to its worst impacts. Today at COP26 as delegates focused attention on financing a robust and sustainable effort to combat climate change, the Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Honourable Steven Guilbeault, are meeting with stakeholders and country representatives to highlight Canada's climate finance contribution. They also stressed the need for developed countries to advance plans to ensure climate finance is delivered effectively, efficiently and at scale.
At a press conference with Jochen Flasbarth, Germany's State Secretary at the Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, and Minister Wilkinson highlighted the joint Canada-Germany Climate Finance Delivery Plan.
The Delivery Plan, released last week, provides clarity on when and how developed countries will meet the $100-billion annual climate finance goal through to 2025. The Plan helps keep momentum going, and facilitates important conversations ensuring that we collectively deliver on the goals of the Paris Agreement.
While developed countries have significantly scaled-up their climate finance commitments over the last decade, more must be done to reach the $100B goal.
Canada is at the forefront of driving progress on climate finance and recently accepted a request from COP26 President-Designate Alok Sharma to work with Germany to produce a focused Delivery Plan on the $100-billion commitment with the objective of building confidence and trust that developed countries will deliver on their promise.
The Plan sets out an estimated trajectory of climate finance from through to 2025 - taking into account new climate finance pledges from individual developed countries and multilateral development banks, as well as collective qualitative actions to improve the delivery of climate finance. The Plan shows that developed countries will make significant progress toward the $100-billion goal in 2022 and provides confidence that it will be met in 2023 and thereafter through to 2025.
Quotes
"It is critically important for developing countries to be able to trust that the developed world will make good on its promises, starting with the $100-billion climate finance goal. Canada doubled its climate finance commitment earlier this year and is proud to have taken on this leadership role with Germany at the request of the COP26 President-Designate. While more work needs to be done, I hope that we can instil confidence and trust that developed countries will deliver on their promises to the developing world and that Canada will continue to be a constructive player to this end internationally."
The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson
Minister of Natural Resources Canada
"Developing countries are the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change. It is our responsibility, as developed countries, to live up to our goal and deliver $100-billion in climate finance. Through the Climate Finance Delivery Plan we demonstrate that although we will be late, we will meet the goal. Addressing this priority in advance of COP26 would not have been possible without the leadership that Canada and Germany played."
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault
Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Quick facts
-
Climate finance plays a critical role in helping developing countries fight climate change and adapt to its impacts. That is why, in 2009, developed countries agreed to mobilize $100 billion in climate finance per year by 2020, and in 2015 agreed to extend this goal through to 2025.
-
In June 2021, the Prime Minister of Canada announced that Canada will double its international climate finance commitment to $5.3 billion over the next five years. Canada's increased commitment to climate finance includes an increased focus on adaptation and recognizes that urgent action is needed to address the interconnected crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, which disproportionally affect the poorest and most vulnerable.
-
The OECD supported the work on this Delivery Plan with its expert analysis that provides aggregate, forward-looking estimates of an increase in climate finance from 2021 to 2025.
-
The United Kingdom holds the Presidency of COP26, this year's international climate meeting and negotiations. Climate finance is one of the four COP26 goals, a key priority for the UK's COP26 Presidency.
