“Germany believes it has a joint responsibility to make the poor and poorest countries more resilient,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday in an opening statement delivered by video link to the Climate Adaptation Summit on January 25, 2021. At the summit, the German government pledged an additional 220 million euros for adaptation to climate change in developing countries.
The funds are to be used to extend climate risk financing and insurance. Within the framework of the InsuResilience Global Partnership, the aim is to provide 500 million particularly poor people with insurance every year to cover disastrous climate-related risks such as lost harvests or flooding. “In recent years we have made intensive use of our G7 and G20 Presidencies to this end,” stressed the Chancellor.
More of the funds pledged at the Summit will go to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF). This Fund helps the least developed countries draw up and implement national adaptation plans.
Climate action and development closely linked
The fight against climate change is one of the prerequisites for achieving goals such as a world without hunger and for creating new employment. This was therefore the focus of the Global Commission on Adaptation’s first Climate Adaptation Summit, at which Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte invited the Chancellor to make an online statement.
The summit output is to be the Adaptation Action Agenda, which is to mobilise, pool and review implementation of measures to support countries in adapting to the consequences of climate change. Moreover, the summit itself and the Action Agenda are important steps on the way to the next UN Climate Change Conference which is to take place in the Scottish city of Glasgow from 1 to 12 November 2021.
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Germany is one of the world’s major donors in the field of climate finance, and it is meeting its international climate finance pledges. In 2019 it provided four billion euros on the basis of budget funds, marking a doubling of funding since 2014. Africa is a priority region for Germany’s engagement in the field of adaptation to climate change. The focus is on food security and water supply.
The Climate Adaptation Summit aims to mobilise additional international support to finance and implement adaptation measures, to underscore the need for urgent action, and to identify innovate adaptation measures.
The Summit also marks the end of the work of the Global Commission on Adaptation. Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller was one of the 34 members, who came from the realms of politics, the private sector and international organisations. It was co-chaired by former UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dr Kristalina Georgieva and Bill Gates (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).
Photo: Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung
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