The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and UN Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD) each hosted discussions on climate finance during COP 26. The Glasgow Climate Change Conference is taking place through 12 November 2021.

To help countries deliver on the SDGs and their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to climate action, the GGGI at COP 26 is bringing members and partners together on such topics as: carbon pricing and market mechanisms; approaches to climate-smart COVID-19 recovery; NDC targets and green jobs creation; targets and strategies towards net-zero; innovative and sustainable finance; and gender and social inclusion in climate action.

On 5 November, a GGGI event on Finance for the Delivery of the Paris Agreement: Leveraging and Mainstreaming Sustainable Finance in Emerging Countries addressed challenges in boosting green bond markets in emerging economies, lessons learned, and future initiatives. Stakeholders from development banks in Latin America, Asia, and Europe:

• showcased examples of initiatives in Viet Nam and Mexico to increase sustainable investment through the green bond market;
• addressed how to deal with the challenges of a low supply of green bonds and certainty of investors; and
• emphasized the importance of sustainability bond policy frameworks to spur growth.

Moderator Ingvild Solvang, GGGI, stated that although the global green bond market has reached a record USD 1 trillion, this only represents a small portion of the total bond market, which is around USD 123 trillion. The Government of Luxembourg co-hosted this event. [GGGI at COP 26 Website] 

On 4 November, a UN-REDD event titled Financing Forest Action: Investing in Forests to Address the Climate Crisis, addressed the ways in which forests can combat global climate change through nature-based solutions, bringing together national and international environmental leaders to discuss how to scale up forest finance. Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge, called for a shift towards nature-based solutions, reminding participants that humans have overextended the Earth’s use of resources and must include the preservation of natural systems in their notion of investments. 

The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was postponed for a year due to COVID-19. Events are taking place on the sidelines of the negotiations, serving to launch initiatives and publications, share insights on topics being discussed in the main proceedings, and introduce new issues and actors to the climate change process. [ENB side event coverage at COP 26]