Climate summit in New York: signals for climate finance?

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is convening a climate summit in New York on the 23rd of September. New commitments to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), like those already made by Germany, are being anticipated in the area of climate finance.

It will be the first time since the Copenhagen conference in 2009 that heads of state and government from around the world will focus their attention on international climate policy. All of the states taking part in the climate summit in Qatar in 2012 welcomed the idea warmly.

While the New York summit will not entail a round of climate policy negotiation, it can send vital signals that could influence international climate negotiations and climate-friendly policy and investment decisions. The closeness with which it was scheduled to the UN General Assembly and the negotiation of “sustainable development goals” for the time after 2015 are also meant to emphasize that climate policy is a United Nations priority that goes well beyond the environmental issue and is closely intertwined with the development agenda.

Brot für die Welt, Germanwatch, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Oxfam will all be present in New York to observe and comment on the climate summit. The organizations and further partners advocate the interests of population groups that are most vulnerable to climate change. In addition to scaling up international climate finance for developing countries, putting an end to coal financing by development banks is an urgent priority – an area in which action is required on the part of Germany and KfW.

Brot für die Welt and Germanwatch have stated their expectations of the climate summit in issue 46 of Aktuell (German only) and provide notes on relevant events in New York related to the summit.

Sabine Minninger / Brot für die Welt