Climate change impacts all countries, but its adverse effects are proving particularly severe for Asia and the Pacific. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased debt levels, severely affected economic performance in the region and has made the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and commitments toward the Paris Agreement all the more difficult.
Regional collaboration is pivotal to achieve net-zero, which is why the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) have signed a five-year partnership agreement to support Asia-Pacific countries to develop green low-carbon post-COVID-19 recovery strategies and policies, with a particular focus on supporting least developed, landlocked developing and small island developing countries.
Recognizing the urgent need to increase the flow of investment into developing countries and emerging markets to meet the targets set in the Paris Agreement, the first of ESCAP-GGGI's joint endeavours, is the launch of the publication Green and Climate Finance Options to Support the Post COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery and Climate Action.
While significant volumes of green climate finance have been pledged by governments to meet these targets and goals, green finance has not been able to achieve the scale required. Therefore, this publication provides options to help countries raise their climate ambitions and nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and achieve these goals by examining critical policy gaps and barriers to climate finance. In addition, this study presents a range of financial instruments and mechanisms which can be deployed to address these critical constraints.
ESCAP and GGGI will continue to work with Asia-Pacific countries and the private sector to work towards a carbon-neutral future. In doing so we are collaborating on country-level projects in the Asia-Pacific region to support climate finance policies, green bonds, funds and facilities that support governments in meeting their NDCs.
This report will be launched on the sidelines of the COP26, with the launch taking place on 4 November at 9am UK time, interested participants can register at: http://bit.ly/3bgqOHa.
