The first workshop on long-term finance related to climate change in a series initiated at the COP 17 conference in Durban in 2011 took place in Bonn, Germany, from 9 to 11 July 2012.
The establishment of a work programme including workshops, on long-term finance in 2012 was one of the decisions taken in Durban. The aim of this work programme is to contribute to the on-going efforts to scale up the mobilization of climate change finance after 2012. The work programme analyses options for the mobilization of resources from a wide variety of sources, inclu ding public and private, bilateral and multilateral and alternative sources.
Relevant analytical work on climate-related financing needs of developing countries is also being conducted under this work programme. The analysis draws upon relevant reports including that of the High-level Advisory Group on Climate Financing, whose membership included the president of the African Development Bank Group president, Donald Kaberuka, as well as the report on mobilizing climate finance for the Group of Twenty, which included AfDB staff among the contributors. These reports provide the criteria for assessing the various sources of finance as well as the lessons learned from the experience of fast-start finance to date. The work programme will host two workshops on long-term finance during the course of the year.
The Bonn workshop brought together senior representatives from Parties, financial institutions, private sector executives, civil society and academia. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, from the Earth Institute, Columbia University, gave the keynote speech on the economics of climate change.
His speech highlighted the need for as assessment rule on an individual country basis, based on carbon emissions (polluter pays principle) and ability to pay. His concluding remarks portrayed the emerging Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the potential stimulus for local to national planning, as climate change mitigation and adaptation programs are highly context specific, requiring detailed costed plans from local to national levels.
The workshop was organized around six sessions. They were Setting the Scene; Understanding the Long Term Financing Needs of Developing Countries; Sources of Climate Finance; Options for Mobilizing Climate Finance; Lessons Learnt from Fast Start Finance, and Next Steps: Interim Work and Second Workshop.
The African Development Bank participants were Anthony Nyong, Manager, Compliance and Safeguards Division, ORQR.3 and Uzoamaka Nwamarah, Senior Climate Change Specialist, Climate Change Coordinating Committee.
Mr Nyong was a panel member for the first two sessions. His presentations outlined the climate change challenge, the low-carbon investment trends and the current landscape of adaptation finance in the context of Africa.
He presented the Bank's perspective and related examples of mobilizing scaled-up financial resources from public, private and alternative sources, to address climate change mitigation and adaptation finance needs on the continent.
Mr Nyong further highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts involving governments, private sector, civil society and other key stakeholders in identifying ways to catalyse scaled-up long-term climate finance in Africa. He emphasised the need for the design of appropriate methodologies for determining the economic and social costs of climate change adaptation and mitigation, and the critical role of development banks in this regard.
He went on to underline the important role of multilateral, regional and national development banks in assisting countries to establish systems for systematically measuring costs of mitigation and adaption to climate change, as well as the importance of matching sources and options with the financing needs for adaption and mitigation activities.
Panel members and speakers included Helen Mountford, deputy director of the OECD Environment Directorate, Terry McCallion, from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Seyni Nafo, Mitigation Coordinator (Mali), Athena Ronquillo-Ballesteros, World Resources Institute, Erik Jan Stork, APG All Pensions Group and IIGCC, Geoff Sinclair, Standard Bank and UNEP Finance Initiative, Mattia Romani, London School of Economics and Green Growth Institute, Jane Ebinger, World Bank and Barbara Buchner, Climate Policy Initiative.
The AfDB delegation also had discussions with the Chair of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), Emmanuel Dlaminin (Swaziland) and Africa's Lead Negotiator of Finance, Mohamed Nasr (Egypt), regarding the potential support that could be provided by the African Development Bank. This was a follow up meeting as per the discussions held with the AGN representatives during their visit to the Bank in Tunis, in May, 2012.
The output of the work programme on long-term finance will be the delivery of a report by the co-chairs, Mr Zaheer Fakir (South Africa) and Mr Georg Boersting (Norway), to the COP at its 18th session in Doha at the end of 2012.
