Keynote speech by ED a.i.

Good morning, it’s a pleasure to be here today. I thank the Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education, ESCAP, and Incheon East Asia Global Education Institute for their invitation.

COP27 called for a global commitment to prioritize and strengthen climate education as an essential component of climate action.

It’s clear education and climate change are linked.

Education can play a role in reducing climate change and its impact. For example, research shows the link between enhanced education for girls and higher degree of successful adaptation to climate change. This is done through empowerment on reproductive health and rights, fostering girl’s climate leadership and developing green skills for green jobs.

Conversely, climate change poses a risk to education, particularly in vulnerable developing countries, due to disruption and more frequent and violent weather events.

Education is not only a driver of transition to greener economies but is also important for community resilience. In this sense, education is very much cross-sectoral, tackling both mitigation and adaptation.  Education presents great opportunities for cross-sectoral climate projects.

These opportunities can be translated into action only if financing is available and through international cooperation. This is where GCF can play a key role.

Established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and serving the Paris Agreement, GCF’s mandate is to support developing countries in their transition to low-emission, climate-resilient development.

With a portfolio of more than 200 projects, USD 12.0 billion in GCF resources and USD 45 million of total assets under management, GCF is the world’s largest dedicated climate fund.

Compared with other funds, GCF is unique.  We can deploy our resources flexibly, using a range of financial instruments including grants, loans, equity and guarantees.  

We are also a country-driven organisation.  With a network of more than 200 public and private sector partners around the world, we can establish innovative coalitions and investments for climate action.

Through our growing experience, we also have the climate expertise needed to ensure that climate projects have maximum impact and use the right range of policy and financial instruments.

Due to our global scale and climate investment experience, we can build an infrastructure of knowledge and technical support, and can scale up or replicate best practices, knowledge, and innovations in climate action.

For example, we fund early warning systems and country preparedness and help several developing countries build capacity to better respond to disasters.

In Timor-Leste, we are working with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to increase public awareness and education on climate hazards to equip some of the most vulnerable communities at the front lines of climate change. (FP171)

Together with UNDP in Georgia, we are raising public awareness and education through climate change education programmes in the country as a part of a wider programme on scaling up early warning systems in the country. (FP068)   

GCF activities are not confined to specific sectors, we tackle both mitigation and adaptation through sectors that vary from renewable energy to health, water, and food security.  Many of the climate projects we finance are cross cutting that yield social and developmental co-benefits for the community that include education and will protect children from the cross-sectional impacts of climate change.

With BOAD, the West African Development Bank, we are working in Mali on solar rural electrification. In this project, we are building capacity and providing vocational training through setting up rural electrification institutions. (FP102)

We are working with Agence Française de Developpement (AFD) in 11 countries across the Africa, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean regions, aiming to green buildings by improving their energy efficiency, and also to green safety frameworks at the curriculum level by working with schools.

In conclusion, the climate challenges we face are immense.  The international community has yet to live up to its commitments and climate action has yet to reflect the transformations needed across all sectors to build a truly resilient future for the next generation.

As GCF prepares for our second replenishment period, we aim to deliver more support for developing countries to achieve their climate ambitions.  This includes strengthening our activities in education and increasing the resilience of young people to help them cope with the inevitable impacts of climate change.