OSG - Office of the SecretaryGeneral

Published purpose

This project aims to ensure private finance accounts for the risks and opportunities of climate change, emphasizing the poorest and most vulnerable needs and priorities. Project activities include: (1) leveraging the United Nations (UN) platform to build international support for the strategy of the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance; (2) shaping the international narrative of private finance towards the need for every financial decision to take climate change into account; (3) working with Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), UN entities, and permanent missions to develop a clear understanding of the barriers to low-carbon, climate resilient investment in developing countries; (4) working with MDBs, UN entities, and the Conference of Parties (COP) Presidency on a common approach to aligning financial flows with the Paris Agreement; (5) working with UN entities, governments, the private sector, and civil society to deliver on the mandate of the high-level event on Financing for Development in the era of COVID-19 and beyond; and (6) identifying solutions and strengthening commitments to mobilize climate finance, particularly for those interventions that reduce poverty and inequalities, with an emphasis on gender-based inequalities. Direct beneficiaries of this project include UN member states, stakeholders in the financial sector, MDBs and UN agencies and departments. The Special Envoy’s focus on these influential actors helps reorient public and private capital flows to mainstream climate action, address gender inequalities and respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, there are many indirect beneficiaries from this initiative, particularly women and girls.