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Ahead of the 2019 Climate Action Summit (23 September 2019) hosted by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the network Climate Transparency is calling for concrete climate action from the G20 countries. The Ambition Call directed at Germany calls for progress in three areas.
The Paris Agreement sets an irreversible direction for countries to tackle the climate crisis and pursue sustainable development. However, the Agreement still has to show that it can trigger the necessary ambition of action. One potential way to accelerate action are transformative implementation partnerships.
The so called rulebook agreed at the Climate Summit in Katowice, Poland (COP24) in December 2018 provides a solid technical basis for the global implementation of the Paris Climate Convention. To avert the climate crisis, however, it is essential that all states show significantly more political will to implement the agreement swiftly. In this follow-up paper, we present the most important decisions, above all on the elements of the implementation guidelines and - where relevant - the political compromises between the states on them. We also analyse where we consider the rules to be robust enough - and where not.
This briefing note provides an outlook to the upcoming ninth meeting of the Executive Committee (ExCom) of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage (WIM) in Bonn 09.04.-11.04.2019. One main topic under discussion will be the mandate and the Terms of Reference of the Task force on displacement, defining the work in its next phase.
On December 13, the Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) adopted a new strategy for the energy sector. The strategy will have an impact on the use of billions of Euros of public funds in the energy sector. Unfortunately, the strategy represents a missed chance to truly align all investments by the banks with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Although the strategy has made progress compared to the previous energy strategy, it is far less ambitious then the precedent set by the World Bank in 2017 that excludes all financing of upstream oil and gas activities.
After three consecutive years of stable CO2 emissions, emissions are rising again. The Climate Change Performance Index 2019 (CCPI), published today at COP24 in Katowice, shows only few countries have started to implement strategies to limit global warming well below 2 or even 1.5°C. While there is a continued growth and competitiveness of renewable energy, especially in countries that had low shares before, the CCPI shows a lack of political will of most governments to phase out fossil fuels with the necessary speed. Because of that, in most countries the climate policy evaluation by national experts is significantly lower than in the last years.
The CCPI is an independent monitoring tool of countries' climate protection performance. It aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables the comparability of climate protection efforts and progress made by individual countries. Based on standardised criteria, the index evaluates and compares the climate protection performance of 56 countries and the EU, which are together responsible for more than 90 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) can play a critical role in limiting climate change and helping communities adapt to its impacts. Since 2011, they have provided nearly $200 billion in finance for climate change mitigation and adaptation (so-called “climate finance”). The World Bank Group’s recent announcement that it will increase its climate-related investments means this number is likely to grow. But while climate finance is important, it makes up less than a quarter of all finance provided by the MDBs. The rest goes to activities that may (or may not) undermine climate goals.
The world’s climate goals can only be reached with enough high quality financial support. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have to play a vital role in efforts to shift global finance flows towards a sustainable future.
The report aims to support the ongoing efforts by MDBs to achieve alignment between their activities and the global climate goals and to help shareholders and stakeholders to screen projects and strategies for Paris alignment. It can also serve as a discussion basis for the efforts of other financial institutions to align their financial flows.