In The Fight Against Climate Change Finance Remains The Weak Link

Climate finance was on the agenda as finance ministers met today in Luxembourg, one month ahead of the next international climate summit COP22 in Marrakech.

Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe welcomes the re-iteration by finance ministers to continue to provide public finance to tackle both the causes and impacts of climate change. But despite the rehashed pledge, EU Member States must provide much more clarity on how support for international climate action will be scaled up.

In reaction to today’s ECOFIN council, Maeve McLynn, CAN Europe Finance and Subsidies Policy Coordinator, said:

“It is good to see that efforts are made to better integrate climate across financial institutions and that there is a re-commitment to provide public money in the fight against climate change.”

EU member states continue to sidestep the crucial question of how they will scale up support for adaptation and loss and damage.

“But the language is too weak, further exposing the reticence of finance ministers to commit predictable and adequate support for climate action. EU member states continue to sidestep the crucial question of how they will scale up support for adaptation and loss and damage. As Hurricane Matthew leaves a trail of destruction across the Caribbean, we are harshly reminded that the world is not doing enough to support vulnerable countries in adapting to the devastating impacts of climate change.”

Though the council conclusions point out that the EU is on track to meeting its fair share of climate financing, they fail to include any figure or provisional figure of where the EU is in its provision since last year.

At the upcoming climate summit in Marrakech, countries are expected to agree on a roadmap for how to meet the $100 billion climate finance target by 2020.

“The EU must use the international momentum around the upcoming climate finance roadmap to establish more clarity on how EU member states are scaling up climate finance up to 2020 and beyond”, McLynn continued.

“Furthermore, finance ministers disregard the EU’s commitment to end subsidies for fossil fuels. As a member of the G20, and now a Party to the Paris Agreement, the EU must stop paying lip service to the problem of fossil fuel subsidies and actually start eliminating them”, she concluded.