Banks commit to climate finance in build up to UN summit

Six of the world's major development banks, including the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank, released a joint statement on Thursday reaffirming their commitment to delivering climate finance ahead of a major the United Nations Climate Summit late this month.

The African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), along with the EIB and World Bank, confirmed their positions on addressing climate change.

The statement highlights how collaboration between the 6 banks and the private sector will be crucial in delivering the finance needed to support developing countries in their adaptation and mitigation measures.

According to the statement, the banks have delivered in excess of US$75 billion (£46 billion) in climate finance for developing and emerging economies since 2011, and an expansion of that support is now needed if these countries resiliency to climate change is to be sufficiently bolstered.

The statement said: "We will further co-ordinate our financing, ideas and analyses, and continue to harmonise our approaches on climate action. Our ambition is to stimulate and support increased global climate action. By seizing opportunities for investment and attracting finance at scale for low-carbon and resilient development, we encourage others to join us in catalysing the necessary increase in climate finance,"

The statement commits the banks to a raft of measures, including placing climate change at the centre of their operations, providing transparent and integrated climate finance reporting, and developing innovative new clean tech investment proposals.

The announcement comes just days before more than 100 world leaders will meet in New York to provide fresh momentum to the UN climate negotiations.

The summit has been called for by Ban Ki Moon (pictured above right), the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as he seeks to bolster political ambition and urgency ahead the scheduled signing of a global legally binding climate deal at the COP21 meeting in Paris 2015.

The one-day summit is being billed as a condensed version of the annual two-week United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP) with COP20 scheduled for Lima, Peru at the end of the year.

Climate finance will be central to the talks, and a perceived failure by industrialised nations to deliver large-scale investment is likely to be addressed with some developing nations becoming frustrated at a lack of progress.

Bindi Lohani, ADB Vice President for Sustainable Development, said: "We will continue to invest US$2 billion annually in clean energy and sharpen our focus on adaptation by including climate risk management in all projects.”