Climate Finance Ministerial Meeting

Remarks by Angel Gurría,

Secretary-General, OECD

Lima, 9 October 2015

(As prepared for delivery)

 

 

Thank you for the opportunity to present the key messages from our climate finance report produced in response to a request by the Peruvian Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr Segura Vasi, and the French Minister of Finance and Public Accounts, Mr Sapin. They asked the OECD to provide an up-to-date aggregate estimate of mobilised climate finance in relation to the commitment by developed countries to mobilise jointly USD 100 billion a year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries. We have done this work in collaboration with Climate Policy Initiative.

 

I want to make three points:

 

First, momentum is building. We estimate the aggregate volume of public and private climate finance mobilised by developed countries at USD 62 billion in 2014, up from USD 52 billion in 2013, with an average for the two years of USD 57 billion a year in 2013-14.

 

• Public finance comprises 71 percent of the total, and mobilised private finance 26 percent with a small amount of export credits, largely for renewables, making up the rest.
   
• Strikingly, over 77 percent of this finance is for climate mitigation; 16 percent is for adaptation, and a further seven percent address both mitigation and adaptation.
   
• This is a robust estimate. Nevertheless, our estimates do not fully capture all mobilised finance. There are challenges in measuring adaptation finance and the crucial role of enabling environments in mobilising private finance cannot at this stage be quantified.

 

The scale of climate finance represents real progress towards the USD 100 billion goal. But more needs to be done, including to address financing for adaptation. 

 

Second, this is a preliminary estimate.

 

• The coverage and consistency of public finance data is better than for mobilised private finance, where measurement and reporting is in its infancy.
   
• Reporting of countries’ bilateral public finance under the UNFCCC is improving but more can be done.
   
• Further progress is needed to improve methodologies for measuring and reporting climate finance and transparency. 

 

The UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance has made some important recommendations in this area. Inevitably, it will take time and considerable hard work before the remaining methodological issues are adequately addressed. But this is an essential task.

 

My final point is that the OECD and CPI remains committed to supporting the efforts of the international community on these important issues.