Summit for “New Global Financing Pact” kicks off in Paris to address climate issues

New Delhi: A summit for a “New Global Financing Pact” started in Paris, to build a new contract between the countries of the North and the South to address climate change.

In his opening remarks, French President Emmanuel Macron told delegates that the world needs “public finance shock” to fight these challenges, adding the current system was not well suited to address the world’s challenges.

“Policymakers and countries shouldn’t ever have to choose between reducing poverty and protecting the planet,” Macron said.

Around 50 heads of state, along with representatives from international institutions and civil society are attending a summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.

During this Summit, the issues at stake are the repercussions of the multiple climate, energy, health, and economic crises, particularly in the most vulnerable countries.

The financing needed to address these crises will also be central to the event’s programme.

In November 2022, on the occasion of the G20 Summit and at the end of a COP27 French President Emmanuel Macron announced to organize an international conference, aimed at taking stock “on all the means and ways of increasing financial solidarity with the South”.

The summit has four major objectives and will be followed up by four working groups:

Restoring fiscal space to countries facing short-term difficulties, especially the most indebted countries

Promoting private sector development in low-income countries.

Encouraging investment in green infrastructure for the energy transition in emerging and developing countries.

Mobilising innovative financing for countries vulnerable to climate change.

In addition, a group of high-level experts, the One Planet Lab, will be responsible for formulating proposals to mobilize innovative sources of financing.

The Summit’s ambition is to bring together several agendas (climate, development, debt) and to propose innovative solutions to address these issues.

It is part of a series of other international events that will take place during the year G20, SDG Summit and COP28.
Leaders attending the summit include Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has become a powerful advocate for reimagining the role of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in an era of the climate crisis.

Kenyan President William Ruto will “underscore the urgent need to move beyond incremental measures that fall short of effectively combating the climate crisis and fail to generate investment benefits for Africa”, his office said.

Other participants include UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, IMF director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank chief Ajay Banga.