Ireland announces its support United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) climate finance activities at COP 27

Pictured: Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport – Eamonn Ryan, Commissioner, California Department of Insurance, Ricardo Lara

In a further demonstration of Ireland’s commitment to supporting sustainable finance development in emerging markets, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan announced funding of €2.5 million for the establishment of a new UNDP FC4S SDG Pipeline Builder programme at COP27.

A special report commissioned for COP27 found that by 2025, $1 trillion in investment per year will be needed to cut greenhouse gases and increase climate action in developing and emerging economies. This rises to $2.4 trillion per year by 2030.

UNDP is scaling its financing work, in line with its new Strategic Plan, in order to promote over $1 trillion investment of public expenditure and private capital in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Plan recognizes that strong partnerships – with governments and the private sector – are central to achieving this. Key to this are financial centres, with the UNDP Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) network primed to play a leading role.

Irish funding will be used to establish the UNDP FC4S SDG Pipeline Builder programme, the aim of which is to provide investors with opportunities to support emerging market and developing economies with country-level SDG aligned investable projects.

Initial activities have been planned in Kenya and Nigeria, in partnership with UNDP FC4S members Nairobi International Financial Centre and FC4S Lagos.

This initiative supports existing UNDP activities, in particular the SDG Investor Maps, a market intelligence tool that identifies investment opportunity areas for private investment aligned with national development plans. To date, through UNDP’s support, 15 countries in Africa have now developed their SDG Investor Maps.

Minister Eamon Ryan, Irish Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, said: “The scale of the challenge we face with climate change is beyond compare. We have to work hard and fast, together, if we have any chance of addressing them. There is no opt out. There is no easy route, starting with how we finance our ambitions. Delivering on our collective climate goals will require mobilising even greater levels of sustainable financing. Through our support of the UNDP FC4S initiative we are maximising the potential for achieving the SDGs by ensuring that emerging markets and the developing economies efforts are being supported. As an established financial centre, Ireland is building a strong track record in sustainable finance and we look forward to working with our UN partners to accelerate international efforts in this space.”

“As people across the globe witness the effects of an intensifying climate emergency in 2022, UNDP is working with our partners to unlock $1 trillion in sustainable finance that is pivotal to tackle climate change, protect our natural world and drive progress across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” says UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner. “Financial Centres, defined by their cutting-edge expertise in mobilising sustainable finance will be a fulcrum to achieve this moonshot, which seems a huge figure on face value yet represents just 0.24% of total global wealth.”

Stephen Nolan, Managing Director, UNDP FC4S network noted: “A UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub flagship initiative, today FC4S members collectively represent US$84 trillion equity market capitalisation, with members based in Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Gulf and Europe. Minister Ryan’s support will allow FC4S turbocharge its support to our members, particularly those in emerging market and developing economies, with a particular emphasis on mobilising greater amounts of capital required to meet the Paris Agreement and SDGs.”