Virtual Event: Towards securing sustainable climate finance to reduce overshoot risks

On Tuesday 9 April 2024 (14:00 CET), the Climate Overshoot Commission organized a virtual event with high-level experts focused on "Securing sustainable climate finance to reduce overshoot risks".

Context

To prevent or limit climate overshoot, climate finance to support emissions reductions and adaptation must be increased. Financing needs are greatest for lower-income countries, which are least responsible for climate change but most vulnerable to its impacts. Money pledged to meet these needs falls far short of what is required, and money delivered falls short of what has been pledged. Such gaps have helped to create distrust among developing economies, impeding necessary climate action. Achieving sustainable development and delivering effective climate finance are interdependent.

Closing these gaps and mainstreaming climate into development requires international financial institutions and governments to mobilize more resources. This event discussed how this can be achieved, and various venues including equipping development banks with more resources, expanding debt relief, and embracing innovative financial instruments and strategies. Further, it explored how private capital flows should be massively scaled up, especially for emissions reductions, using de-risking strategies, co-financing, and other emerging approaches. Finally, it debated how new sources of finance and transparent, effective, and efficient carbon markets should be expanded, including in the context of reforming the international financial architecture as discussed at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank last October.

Event objectives

The objectives of this event on climate finance to address overshoot risks were three-fold:

• To discuss the latest state of affairs of climate finance, and the global priorities set ahead of COP29 and their expected outcomes;
• To review the most urgent systemic changes in climate finance architecture, and open a discussion on incentives for novel approaches to increase funding;
• To bring forward the need to put communities needs first, and to build approaches to ensure funding reaches them in a sustainable way.

With the participation of

• Muhamad Chatib Basri, Former Minister of Finance of Indonesia, member of the Climate Overshoot Commission
• Guillaume Bonnel, Chief Executive Officer, SDG Impact Finance Initiative
• Benjamin K. Djabare, Deputy Director, Climate Analytics Africa
• Alex Clark (Moderator), Member of Youth Group of the Climate Overshoot Commission