The African Development Bank (AfDB) joined representatives from other multilateral development banks (MDB) on Monday, 6 December 2010, in a joint side event on "Scaling-up International Climate Finance" during the ongoing COP16 Climate Conference. It was an opportunity to share with stakeholders how MDBs are collaborating to expand access to international financing and bolster investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Also highlighted was a report prepared jointly by the MDBs for the United Nations Secretary General High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance explaining how MDBs can play a supportive role in climate change finance architecture by using a broad range of instruments to fund climate change interventions. Other areas explored by the report include catalyzing climate change investments by the private sector, providing technical advice and capacity support to borrower governments, supporting project implementation and sustainability, and supporting carbon market development.
Mafalda Duarte, Principal Climate Change Specialist in the Bank's Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department (ONEC), stressed key lessons learned by MDBs from the implementation of programs and projects using climate change financing and how to shape collaboration and innovation to promote scale and transformation. Early experience shows that combining resources across climate financing instruments is critical to success.
"The availability of new and additional concessional funds for mitigation and adaptation will be a key determinant of the MDBs' ability to further scale up their climate financing activity," said Ms. Duarte.
She explained that to promote a low carbon, climate resilient development path in Africa, substantive grant-based resources were needed to cover incremental costs. Other recommendations include programmatic approaches that combine projects and promote scale, local currency financing instruments to reduce exchange rate risk, equity, and reformed carbon finance and post-2012 instruments to simplify carbon market participation.
Contacts
Mafalda Duarte
