COP 23- TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL PROTECTION AGAINST CLIMATE RISKS $125 MILLION DOLLARS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED FOR GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) announced today that it will contribute 110 million euros (US $125 million) to support a new global partnership to bring affordable insurance and other financial protection to millions of vulnerable people around the world. This major new initiative supports the Fijian’s Presidency’s priority of ensuring COP23 looks for ways to take care of the vulnerable.

The announcement was made during the launch of the InsuResilience Global Partnership for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance Solutions as part of the High-Level COP23 Presidency Event on resilience and risk sharing. The contribution from BMZ follows a £30 million (US $39 million) commitment that was made by the Government of the United Kingdom in July.

BMZ has joined forces with COP23 Presidency, the Ethiopian Chair of the V20, the United Kingdom and the World Bank to launch this Global Partnership. It builds on the InsuResilience initiative, which was founded during the German G7 Presidency in 2015 with the aim of insuring an additional 400 million poor and vulnerable people in developing countries against climate risks by 2020. In July 2017, at their Summit in Hamburg, the G20 welcomed the creation of a Global Partnership.

“The Global Partnership is a practical response to the needs of those who suffer loss because of climate change. And I am very proud that it has happened under Fiji’s Presidency of COP. At the same time, it is a means of preparing for a more resilient form of development for those who will have to adapt to the great challenge of climate change,” said the COP23 President and Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Change secretariat, said, “People devastated by recent weather events and communities vulnerable to climatic impacts are looking to the nations meeting in Bonn for an answer, for support and hope for the future”.

“This new and higher ambition initiative represents one, shinning, example of what can be delivered when progressive governments, civil society and the private sector join hands with creativity and determination to provide solutions,” she said.

“This Global Partnership brings important groups like the V20 group made up of those countries most vulnerable to climate change and the G20 group of the world’s strongest economies together around one table so that they can join forces to increase the resilience of poor and vulnerable people to the impacts of climate change. Instead of only reacting to catastrophes we want to shift to planning, preparing and protecting,” said Thomas Silberhorn.

The aim of the Global Partnership is to increase the resilience of developing countries and protect the lives and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people against the impacts of climate change and against natural disasters.

Under the framework of the Global Partnership, key players from developing and industrialised countries, international organisations and development banks, the private sector, civil society and the scientific community will work together to develop practical solutions to provide financial protection against climate risks and natural disasters. Innovative finance and insurance solutions for individual countries, which are tailored to the specific needs and challenges of poor members of the population in particular, will be developed and implemented through the Global Partnership.

On the one hand, the Partnership is meant to enable governments to react faster and more effectively following a natural disaster. On the other hand, the Partnership is meant to support and enhance the future efforts of governments to prepare to meet risks posed by climate change and natural disasters, linking these preparations to the use of risk finance and insurance.

This combination of a fast, targeted response together with advanced planning can reduce the number of humanitarian emergencies, and help poor and vulnerable people get back on their feet more quickly after a disaster has occurred.

The new Global Partnership comes at the same time as the launch of the Fiji Clearing House for Risk Transfer under the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which is an innovative online platform that will use artificial intelligence to connect countries seeking insurance solutions with those providing them.

source: cop23.com