Sustainable finance or green finance is the set of financial regulations, standards, norms and products that pursue an environmental objective, and in particular to facilitate the energy transition.
Developing a comprehensive approach to monitoring climate change action for funds
Monitoring, reporting and verification of climate finance provided and the funded activities has grown in importance during the last years. Therefore, a consortium of Germanwatch, Ecofys and Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy has developed for the German Federal Environment Agency a proposal for a potential monitoring and reporting system for a bilateral climate funds.
This paper describes policies for financing energy efficiency in buildings in China and Germany. In both countries energy consumption of the building sector constitutes a large share of the overall energy consumption. While the situation in regard to the size and age of the existing building stock and the construction rate of new buildings differs in China and Germany, there are nevertheless some similar challenges where sharing of experiences could be helpful.
World leaders and governments paved the way for the establishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreements made at the Conference of Parties (COPs) in Copenhagen (2009) and Cancún (2010). The objective of the Green Climate Fund is to achieve a paradigm shift towards low-carbon and climateresilient development pathways. This requires ambition, in the design of funded activities and in the provision of financial resources to the GCF.
This paper pursues the question of whether revenues from Chinese emission trading scheme (ETS) pilots, and a future national carbon market, should be used for national climate action in China and what topics should be addressed. Firstly, it will discuss why carbon market revenues should be used for climate finance and how this may be accomplished in theory. The paper then describes the experience of other countries, particularly in the EU, in using ETS revenues for climate actions. Finally recommendations are provided for the Chinese pilot ETS.
What is the appetite for earmarking within specific EU member states?
The European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is facing serious problems. Clear decisions are necessary to ensure that the EU ETS will realise its double potential during the third EU ETS period as a key instrument for reducing emissions and generating revenues for national and international climate action.The paper will shed light on the potential of the EU ETS as a finance instrument. And it will “reactivate” the question regarding earmarking the EU ETS revenues.
The third meeting of the Green Climate Fund Board is scheduled for the 12th to the 15th of March 2013 (in Berlin) and represents a critical juncture for the work of the GCF Board. The discussions on the core modalities to operationalize its objectives, also subsumed under the term "Business Model Framework", will be at the centre of the...
A Germanwatch report on the outcomes of the 3rd meeting
The third meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) took place in Bonn from the 8th to the 10th March 2013. The SCF has been established by the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC to assist the Conference of Parties (COP) in exercising its functions with respect to the financial mechanism of the Convention. Certain outcomes...