BAKU, 13 November 2024 – The Global Shield against Climate Risks took part in the launch of the annual High-Level Dialogue on Coordination and Complementarity for Funding Arrangements Responding to Loss and Damage. The event took place on the margins of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit and was co-hosted by the Republic of Azerbaijan as the COP29 Presidency and the Co-Chairs of the Board of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) at COP29 yesterday in Baku.
The launch event aimed at initiating the relationship and the structured and timely exchange of relevant knowledge and information between the funding arrangements, including the FRLD. This was key to strengthening coordination and complementarity in the context of continued operationalization of the FRLD. Moreover, the event took stock of the state of funding arrangements and the FRLD’s progress in its first year, as well as of priority gaps where the funding arrangements could cooperate with the FRLD over the coming year, building on the experience of different stakeholders.
High-level speakers including United Nations Secretary-General H.E. António Guterres, World Bank President H.E. Ajay Banga, COP29 President H.E. Mukhtar Babayev, FRLD Executive Director Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, Green Climate Fund Executive Director Mafalda Duarte, United Nations Development Programme Administrator, Achim Steiner, and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Secretary General Jagan Chapagian, among others delivered remarks during the Dialogue.
The Global Shield offers several opportunities for the FRLD to promote complementarity, as well as enhance effectiveness and impact through the bottom-up, country-led and programmatic approach to pre-arranged finance that is enshrined in the Global Shield’s In-Country Processes and sits at the core of the Global Shield implementation model. This is a key element of any funding arrangement in the loss and damage support landscape because impacts are ultimately felt by vulnerable people and communities.
In addressing the launch event, the Global Shield Secretariat’s Co-Director, Nilesh Prakash emphasized the initiative’s value proposition: “The Global Shield against Climate Risks, as a joint G7-V20 initiative, is supporting climate-vulnerable countries by leveraging pre-arranged financing for minimizing and addressing loss and damage. The country-led, demand-driven, risk-informed and inclusive process of the Global Shield enables countries to access and deploy pre-arranged financial support through the Global Shield’s financing vehicles. Since 2022, the Global Shield has raised €350 million and stands ready to support FRLD in the operationalization of its funding mechanisms for climate-vulnerable countries”.
With the FRLD’s new Executive Director on board, the FRLD will expedite work on its operational modalities, recognizing the need for ramped-up loss and damage support.
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About the Global Shield against Climate Risks:
Launched at COP27 by the V20 Group of Finance Ministers and the G7, the Global Shield against Climate Risks aims to increase protection for climate-vulnerable economies and communities by providing and facilitating substantially more and better pre-arranged and trigger-based finance against disasters and climate risks. Greater financial protection and faster and more reliable disaster preparedness and response will contribute to effectively responding to losses and damages from climate change.
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