Remarks by Commissioner Hoekstra at the Global Climate Finance Framework event at the World Bank Spring meetings

Remarks by Commissioner Hoekstra at the World Bank meetings

Ladies and gentlemen,

Very good to see all of you, I think it is undisputed at least in this room that we do need substantial additional investments.

The good news, as the IPCC has noted before, is that there is enough capital. The bad news is that we do face significant barriers in unlocking it.

I will make four very brief points.

The first is, if you look at how to finance this, you will face a bit of matrix. We have to go for public and private, and for the traditional and the innovative instruments. We need each of the four elements.

I like what Prime minister Mia Mottley just said about looking for innovative ways to have polluters, consumers pay for things that they might not be paying for today.

Let me also say that the European Union continues to be a strong advocate for doing more.

In 2022, the EU and its Member States contributed 30 billion out of the 100 billion in climate finance from public sources and mobilised an additional roughly 12 billion of private finance.

A second point is that we also need to progress on reforming the domestic and international finance architecture. We do need to create fiscal space, enhance domestic resource mobilisation, and unlock private capital.

And this is exactly where the Global Climate Finance Framework can bring the acceleration that we need. For instance, by building momentum around the new Task Force on Global International Taxation, that is co-led by Barbados, France and Kenya.

Let's also possible avenues for new instruments that can at once generate revenues for further climate action and help us curb emissions, for instance in the aviation sector.

Third, accelerating investment at a country level also requires coordination and coalitions around country-owned plans. In that realm, I am pleased that we are supporting the Country Platform in Bangladesh. We are doing that with USD 340 million dedicated to the Bangladesh Renewable Energy Facility. That is part of our Global Gateway strategy.

In that sense, we also very much welcome and support the G20 Brazilian Presidency Task Force on Global Mobilization Against Climate Change.

This is a global effort. There are huge differences and very difficult geopolitical circumstances.

Yet, in the end, there is no alternative than working together. As difficult as it is, it is absolutely necessary if we want to deliver. Let's continue to be there for each other.

Thank you.