Accelerating climate finance and investment for a green transition

Dear Vice- Minister of Economy and Finance Eok-won Lee

Distinguished guests,

I congratulate the leadership of the South Korean Government for convening the P4G summit in May and commend its partnership with P4G.

The announcement by South Korea last October to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 added greatly to the global momentum on tackling climate change. I believe the release of the government’s detailed plan by June on how to cut emissions and achieve this ambitious goal could serve as a model for other countries.

I am confident that South Korea’s hosting of this year’s P4G Summit will strengthen the type of green partnerships necessary to drive a global green transition during the COVID-19 era. South Korea’s Green New Deal matches well with P4G’s mandate to develop public-private partnerships to deliver on the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

P4G’s coalescing of its many partners to pursue global goals also matches the collaborative way we at the Green Climate Fund finance climate action.

With close to 200 public and private investment partners, GCF is playing a key role in increasing access to climate finance for developing countries. We now have a portfolio of projects worth USD 30 billion, including USD 8.4 billion in GCF resources.

This is divided equally between adaptation and mitigation measures, with over half of our adaptation funding going to LDCs, SIDS, and African States. We are leveraging these investments to accelerate the transition to low carbon climate resilient development in four ways.

• First, we provide grant funding to countries to integrate into their NDCs climate action, sustainable development, and COVID-19 recovery efforts and translate them into an investment pipeline for climate action. Integrated policies could reduce total required investment by up to 40%.
• Second, by catalysing financial innovation to increase developing countries’ access to finance without increasing their debt burden. For example, GCF is collaborating with two global coalitions to develop new valuation and labelling methodologies for climate-resilient infrastructure to lay the foundations for resilience bonds. 
• Third, by making blended finance work for the most vulnerable. For example, GCF co-finances a USD 750 million private equity fund to invest in adaptation and mitigation priorities at the sub-national level. Almost half of the 42 participating countries are LDCs & SIDS.
• Finally, we help align finance with sustainable development by strengthening domestic financial institutions and fostering normative shifts based on our portfolio results.

Finally, I thank the Korean Government for hosting GCF and being one of the contributing countries that has helped GCF become a USD 30 billion fund supporting transformative climate action in more than 120 countries.