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FINANCING ACTION ON CLIMATE MAINTAINING MOMENTUM
 
OUR PLANET
The magazine o the United Nations Envionment Pogamme -
Febuay 2008
MAINTAININGMOMENTUM
Financing Action On Climate
 
2FINANCING ACTION ON CLIMATE MAINTAINING MOMENTUM
OURPLANET
alsopage 3 eectionspage 4 peoplepage 8 vebatim and numbespage 9 bookspage 8 awads and eventspage 9 wwwpage 26 poducts
Our 
 
Planet 
, the magazine o theUnited Nations Envionment Pogamme (UNEP)PO Box 30552Naiobi, KenyaTel: (254 20)762 234Fax: (254 20)7623 927e-mail: uneppub@unep.ogTo view cuent and past issues o thispublication online, please visitwww.unep.og/ouplanetISSN 0 - 7394
Dect  Pbcat:
Naomi Poulton
Edt:
Geoey Lean
Cdat:
David Simpson
Assstat Cdat:
Anne-Fance White
Speca Ctbt:
Nick Nuttall
Dstbt Maae:
Manyahleshal Kebede
Des:
Amina Daani
Pdced b:
UNEP Division o Communications and Public Inomation
Pted b:
Natuapint
Dstbted b:
SMI BooksThe contents o this magazine do not necessailyeect the views o policies o UNEP o theeditos, no ae they an ocial ecod. Thedesignations employed and the pesentationdo not imply the expessions o any opinionwhatsoeve on the pat o UNEP concening thelegal status o any county, teitoy o city o itsauthoity o concening the delimitation o itsonties o boundaies.* All dolla ($) amounts ee to US dollas.
...describes the importance o greentaxes and international engagement inaddressing climate change.
polluters should pay - page 6
Kristin Halvorsen,
Norway’s Ministero Finance......argues that the public and privatesectors both have a key role to play insustainable development.
His Serene Highness PrinceAlbert II
o Monaco...
work together - page 5
...describes a breakthrough innancing the conservation o theorests on which the uture o theplanet depends.
Roberto Dobles,
Minister o Environmentand Energy, Costa Rica...
orests - the uture - page 10 
...spells out the reasons why the worldshould invest immediately in adaptation toclimate change.
time to adapt - page 12
Martin Parry,
Co-Chair o IPCCWorking Group II......describes the imperative o eectively nancing adaptationto climate change.
action time - page 16
Monique Barbut,
CEO and Chairperson o theGlobal Environment Facility......describes how cities are taking the leadworldwide in practical action on the ground.
Nicky Gavron,
Deputy Mayoro London...
driving change - page 20
...describes how integrating climatechange adaptation with sustainabledevelopment objectives matters orvulnerable countries and communities.
scaling-up action - page 22
Anilla Cherian,
an independentconsultant who has worked or a rangeo UN, intergovernmental agenciesand NGOs.......gives a personal view o howit will have to evolve to meetthe scale o the challenge o climate change.
Christiana Figueres,
a recent member o theExecutive Board o the Clean DevelopmentMechanism... 
tuning the instrument - page 24
... describes how he has taken up the cause o climate change and is working to persuadehundreds o millions o ans to do the same.
global cool - page 27
Legendary Bollywood actor
Amitabh Bachchan
......describes how developing countriesare ready to play an appropriate part intackling climate change.
Marina Silva,
Minister o theEnvironment, Brazil...
clear commitment - page 14
 
FINANCING ACTION ON CLIMATE MAINTAINING MOMENTUM3
reflections
 
by Achim Steiner,UN Under-Secretary-General andExecutive Director, UNEP
UNEP pomotesenvionmentally sound pacticesglobally and in its own activities.This magazine is pinted on 00% ecycledpape, using vegetable -based inks and otheeco-iendly pactices. Ou distibution policyaims to educe UNEP’s cabon ootpint.
I the world is successully to navigate the Road Map agreed at the Bali climatechange negotiations in December, ways need to be ound to mobilize andocus the trillions o dollars in the world’s nancial and capital markets on thegreening o the global economy.Such greening has already begun, driven by the Kyoto Protocol, anticipationo even deeper cuts rom a new climate regime ater 2012 — and by thegrowing realization that i 21st century economies are to compete, ourishand deliver a new generation o jobs, they will need to be more resourceefcient and less dependent on nite natural resources. Now the challenge isto accelerate and mainstream these real, tangible but edgling beginnings.Financing a transition to a low carbon society is one o the central issues,along with climate proong economies, beore delegates at the 10th SpecialSession o UNEP’s Governing Council in Monaco. The attending environmentministers, and their institutions, have been in the oreront o championingorward-looking economic and policy instruments, through partnershipswith pioneers in the nancial services sector, industry, other UN organizations,organized labour, scientists, civil society and law makers.In preparation or the Special Session and the accompanying Global MinisterialEnvironment Forum, I asked or a snapshot o the growing green economy,including UNEP’s collaborative work. It gives a glimpse into where we are,and perhaps where we need to go — and opens a window on such widersustainability challenges as the Millennium Development Goals and whatSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls the “bottom billion” o our global society.For example:275 nancial institutions, managing assets worth $13 trillion, participatein the Principles or Responsible Investment — inspired and acilitated byUNEP and the UN Global Compact.Sustainable energy nancial transactions reached over $100 billion in2006, according to UNEP’s Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative and the NewEconomics Foundation.Some 60 countries, including 13 developing ones, have targets orrenewables. Around 80 have market mechanisms, eed-in taris and renewableportolio standards.More than 2.3 million people now have jobs in the renewable energysector versus around 2 million in oil and gas.
••••
100,000 people in rural India now have solar power ater UNEP, and localbanks, introduced an aordable loan scheme. It is now sel-nancing.Emissions trading, developed mostly as a result o the European Union’s Trading Scheme — saw 362 million tonnes o C0
2
, worth around seven billionEuros, traded in 2005.Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism mobilized investment worth closeto $6 billion, in 2006, roughly equal to the unds rom Ofcial DevelopmentAssistance in the same areas.Financing or adaptation presents a dierent challenge — one o makingmore intelligent use o conventional development assistance, as well asmarkets. The amounts required need more precision. But the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change says that, by 2030, additional investmentcould include: $14 billion or agriculture, orestry and sheries; $11 billionor new water supply inrastructure; and between $8 and $130 billionor inrastructure.Energy saving holds particular potential. I the annual rate o energy efciencyimprovement could be increased rom the current one per cent to 2.5 percent world-wide it might be possible to keep atmospheric carbon dioxideconcentrations below critical levels or this century. How can this be doneand how much will it cost? Indeed, would it actually cost anything given thedramatic potential savings in uel bills and resource use — and rom avertingthe economic impacts o climate change? The momentum on climate change in 2007, driven by the science, was nothingshort o breathtaking. Policy makers must now drive the solutions. Many willultimately be ound in the Stock Exchanges and banking centres, and in theboardrooms o the world’s corporations, i only governments seize the moment,dene the objectives and devise the rules o the low carbon economy.
•••
Cove photo © HArALD SUND/ Gallo Images/ Getty Images.The sun is ising on a new ea in the fght against climate change.Govenments, copoations and oganizations have woken up to the temendous potential o economic tools to fnance thetansition to a low-cabon society. UNEP is playing a leading ole, both in defning the issues and deliveing the solutions.
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