The attendees were mainly developing countries (which we expected), but only a couple of developed countries joined. This may be because on the same day was a joint COP26 & International Energy Agency (IEA) Summit on energy, which a lot of developed countries joined. Including the US special climate envoy John Kerry. It's unfortunate that the CDM wasn't amongst vulnerable countries and climate finance providers, because that could have been an opportunity for developed countries to state how they were going to fulfil the global climate finance commitment between 2021 and 2025, including by clarifying the form that climate finance would come in e.g. grants vs loans etc. Additionally, the different climate funds, IFIs and MDBs could have complimented country announcements by stating how they would simplify access to climate finance, as well as outline plans to diversify who can access funds, asides from national government entities. Ahead of COP26, it's certainly useful to discuss UNFCCC crunch issues to ensure that the negotiations at COP26 start from high common-ground. However, this was a wasted opportunity to use it as a space to highlight the role and responsibility of governments to implement solutions. Significantly, India expressed support for this format, as they see it as part of a string of meetings on climate finance ahead of what they hope is a COP that has impact, instead of there only being a few moments of discussions ahead of UNFCCC negotiating sessions. 

 

Next steps for our network

 

The next relevant climate finance meeting will be the Petersberg Climate Dialogue (PCD) in May (6th - 7th). I will add this as a discussion for our next working group call on April 13th so we can discuss options. However, a good step ahead of our call would be to reach out to your national ministries so we can get a better understanding of their positions on the 4 key areas of the CDM, since we didn't really get to hear from developed countries. This will help to build up a picture of who the (possible) champions and laggards are on climate finance amongst European countries. 4 key areas:

Please also share the Eurodad briefing with your national ministries. It will be translated into French and Spanish - I'll send translated versions once both are complete.

Timeline of COP26 meetings on climate finance  

• April: Meeting on Climate finance amongst technical experts
• April 12th: COP26 briefing: the Cabinet Office COP26 civil society and youth engagement - register here
• 6 -7 May: Petersberg Climate Dialogue (PCD) [not a COP meeting, but being co opted by the COP presidency to serve as part of the COP agenda)
• April/ May: Loss & Damage meeting - the first of three to take place ahead of November 2021 
• May: UNFCCC Heads of Delegation meeting
• ? Global goal on adaptation, including adaptation finance

Key points raised by developing countries include

• Need predictable and grants-based climate finance
• Debt is crippling countries and the G20 suspension initiative (DSSI) isn’t enough
• Restructuring debt and debt swaps are options to be used
• Green and blue bonds are in name only and aren’t true options for developing countries in their current form
• Greater access to climate finance is needed

Points raised by the UK

• During the Ministerial UK COP26 President Alok Sharma called for developed countries to fulfil their commitment to mobilise $100 bn of climate finance a year between 2021 and 2025.
• Need for innovative sources of climate finance to not increase a country's debt burden
• Addressing subsidies that are harmful to nature
• Blending aid finance and private finance
• The need to aim for a more-even split between finance for mitigation and finance for adaptation - more info on this here.

Key points raised by multilateral and/or public development banks (M/PDBs)

Eurodad resources: