The Commonwealth High-level Meeting on Climate Finance resulted in an Outcome Document specificing action to enable Commonwealth members to access, manage and use climate funding, with a focus the Commonwealth's poorest and most vulnerable members, especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS), low-lying coastal States, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and other African members.
26 January 2011: The Commonwealth High-level Meeting on Climate Finance, held from 23-25 January 2011, at Wiston House in Sussex, UK, resulted in an Outcome Document specifying action to enable Commonwealth members to access, manage and use climate funding.
The meeting gathered a regionally-representative group from Commonwealth Ministries of Planning, Finance, Environment and Foreign Affairs, as well as development partners, experts on climate finance and regional organizations, to focus on the climate finance needs of the Commonwealth’s poorest and most vulnerable members, especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS), low-lying coastal States, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and other African members.
Participants noted: the inadequate level of accessible climate finance for their adaptation and mitigation needs; difficulties in accessing existing sources of funding; the imbalance between the financing of mitigation and adaptation actions; the challenge of fragmented funding sources; and the need for climate financing to be driven more strongly by national programmes and needs. Participants also noted that a lack of capitalization of the LDC Fund has posed particular difficulties for the implementation of National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs).
The Outcome Document identifies a series of concrete steps, including on: sharing options and experiences on climate funding, focusing on current issues in climate financing for highly vulnerable member States; helping to strengthen private sector climate finance and investment; and building awareness of the scale and breadth of the international response to climate finance; strengthening climate finance planning; aligning climate finance and national sustainable development plans; institutional development; and regional approaches.
The meeting also identified a series of immediate next steps, such as: the establishment of a working group to follow up on the meeting’s recommendations; the integration of work on climate finance in the Commonwealth Secretariat’s 2012-2016 Strategic Plan; active support for the work plan by member States and collaborating institutions, including financial and technical support; and a report to Commonwealth Heads of Government at their meeting in 2011 on progress made, and challenges faced, including the need for enhanced funding for Commonwealth work on climate finance. [Commonwealth Press Release][Outcome Document]