Catherine Pizani

Source text : UNFCCC http://www.g7g20.com/articles/christiana-figueres-financing-the-transition-to-a-green-global-economy Investment in clean energy has risen substantially over recent years, but we are still not safe from the 2°C threshold for climate change. The world needs greater access to climate finance, explains Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Financing a transition to a low-carbon world – one that can keep a global temperature rise under 2°C this century – requires the determined and timely deployment of smart public policies able to unlock ever greener investment flows. The G7 summit hosted by Germany this year has two significant roles to play as countries prepare for the United Nations climate conference in Paris, France, and a new universal agreement. The first is helping to orchestrate the build-up to the $100 billion a year that the international community has agreed to provide developing countries as support towards their climate-friendly development ambitions. The second is to contribute to the global framework that will green capital at levels high enough to transform the economy, estimated by many at an annual $1 trillion over the next 10 to 15 years. Fortunately, this does not require starting from ground zero: the Standing Committee on Finance, linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), published its first assessment during the last UN climate change conference in Lima, Peru. The assessment puts the lower range of global total climate finance flows at $340 billion a year for the period 2011-12, with the upper end at $650 billion, and possibly higher. Of that, perhaps $35 billion to $50 billion was flowing North to South. Neither the support to developing countries nor the total climate flows are high enough yet to achieve the necessary transformation, but the trends are going in the right direction.