News

GGGI at COP24

Katowice, Poland. December 3- GGGI was represented at the official opening ceremony of the COP 24 UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland. During the opening plenary and the High-level Segment, attended by close to 30 heads of states and government, many underscored the importance of taking action on climate change. In his opening address at COP 24, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that we need more action and more ambition to tackle climate change and that countries should show commitment for making investments. More political will and farsighted leadership is required to prevent global climatic chaos. Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama echoed Secretary General Guterres’ comments saying that time is running out and we need to be five times more ambitious and input five times more action.

On the sidelines of the COP 24 climate talks, GGGI will be co-organizing a number of side events and holding signing ceremonies with organizations and the newest Members of GGGI.

Some of side events include the Low Carbon Development: A Paradigm Shift Towards A Green Economy, which will feature innovative, green projects that are underway in Indonesia and other developing countries with focus on how they are financed and how green financing mechanisms work, the Financial Solutions for NDC Implementation, which is aimed at promoting green growth-climate change-sustainable development policies and enabling finance to support NDC; discussing the pool of financial products that uses ranging from grants, loans, interest rate subsidies, equity and blended finance; and enhancing public visibility of GGGI’s NDC program while showcasing key milestones of the global efforts undertaken to review, analyze and identify a pipeline of green bankable projects in 20 partner countries.

GGGI will be co-hosting a side event entitled “Supporting Regional NDC Hubs” to discuss ways to leverage best practices among the African, Caribbean and Pacific NDC Hubs and devise strategies to solve global climate change challenges whilst promoting South-South Cooperation. The joint “AfDB-GGGI study on Africa Green Growth Readiness Assessment” will present prospects in the context of ensuring greater impact on green growth during the implementation of the NDCs and SDGs.  The study was jointly conducted by the Climate Change and Green Growth Department (PECG) of the African Development Bank Group and the Office of Thought Leadership (TL) of GGGI. The assessment is being jointly carried out with the close involvement of and support from respective country focal points and stakeholders.

GGGI will be co-organizing a side event under the theme of “Taking Action to Raise Climate Ambition in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) through NDCs and Long-Term Strategies.” Discussions will revolve around understanding how LDCs and SIDS have contributed to global climate change and sharing practical cases of what can be achieved in other countries. GGGI will be also co-organizing a side event titled “Supporting Access to Green and Climate Finance in the Mediterranean and Southeast Europe.” The side event will present ongoing and new initiatives and methodologies proposed for the regions to scale up climate finance and strengthen cross-regional cooperation and financial synergies. In addition, the event will explore ways to boost the private sector investment benefiting from political, social and institutional support.

In addition to engaging on the sidelines, Anna Schulz, GGGI’s Climate Diplomacy Specialist is supporting the LDC Group in the negotiations. In advance of COP 24, GGGI provided trainings to COP delegates in Burkina Faso and Myanmar to increase their delegations capacity to engage at COP 24 and is supporting capacity enhancement at COP 24 as well. The Climate Diplomacy Program at COP 24 is also providing continued support to the LDC Group Chair, in particular, providing technical assistance in the transparency negotiations under the Paris Agreement Work Program (PAWP). GGGI’s Climate Diplomacy Program, in collaboration with Climate Analytics, will be releasing a blog post analyzing LDC Group capacity to implement the enhanced transparency framework, which will outline key considerations related to flexibility in the coming week.

Meeting with Brigitte Nyirambangutse from the GGGI Rwanda team and Rwandan youth delegates to build capacity