What is a landscape of domestic climate finance? How can it be of use for different stakeholders and policy discussions? – these were some of the issues raised during the first workshop organized by WiseEuropa together with the NewClimate Institute and the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE) as a part of the project „Landscape of Climate Finance: Promoting debate on climate finance flows in Central Europe”, supported by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI). The event, which took place on the 18th of October in Warsaw, facilitated the exchange of experiences regarding the available methods and possibilities needed to redirect financial flows towards sustainable investments.
Maciej Bukowski, CEO at WiseEuropa and Expert at EC’s Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance in his opening pointed out the added value of the systemic analysis of the financial flows for the low-emission transition, and the necessity of the support for the low-emission investments in a specific sector to encompass the perspective of the entire economy.
The meeting addressed the topic of mobilizing climate finance flows through the analysis of solutions and instruments enabling investments compatible with 1.5/2°C pathways presented by Hanna Fekete, founding partner of NewClimate Institute. During the presentation it was emphasised that integration of the Paris-compatibility in the investment decision making process is becoming a more common procedure, has multiple technical solutions and importantly needs to consider the national context of investments. Massimo Merighi – Senior Energy Expert at the European Investment Bank explained that the process of mobilisation of climate finance flows should be facilitated by a universal and standard-neutral taxonomy, as such common language will allow for comparisons across different instruments and thus for the necessary scale-up of available finance.
Ian Cochran, Investment Senior Advisor at the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE), presented the Landscape methodology that helps to assess the climate finance flows and to evaluate their impact based on the experience from five years of climate finance tracking in France. Presentation indicated the key role of project-oriented approach and transparency in improving policy choices to fight climate change.
Furthermore, an investors perspective was presented by Nathan Fabian, Director of Policy and Research at Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), who showed that an increasing number of entities takes the ESG dimensions under consideration within the investment decision-making process and stressed that investors require and expect a stable policy framework that unlocks barriers and allows for the engagement of the private sector in the low-emission transition.
The event concluded with a discussion on the implementation of the landscape methodology in Poland. The comments from the audience suggested that the implementation of the landscape methodology would be beneficial as it would allow for 1) identification of the existing investment gaps between the current levels of financing and the required support resulting from the announced by the government plans; 2) coordination and better cooperation between different public sector actors. Several cases that would directly benefit from such systemic analysis were further highlighted by the guests – namely the financial support for the thermo-modernisation of buildings, e-mobility solutions and renewables, which all require new financial flows. Stakeholders highlighted that they would welcome a trial of the implementation of the methodology, which would be focused either on one sector (e.g. thermal retrofit of buildings) or on one problem (e.g. air pollution), as it would provide them with the opportunity to investigate the mechanisms and benefits of the climate finance landscape mapping in more detail. Participants expressed their expectations for the enhanced coordinating actions and dialogue between private and public sector.
You can access all presentations below:
The European Climate Initiative (EUKI) is a project financing instrument by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). Its implementation is supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is the overarching goal of the EUKI to foster climate cooperation within the European Union (EU) in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
