Fund chief warns of climate ‘impact’ on western countries if global clean energy campaign fails

The new head of the world’s largest climate finance institution has warned that without clean energy investment in developing countries, the US and Europe will be “affected”, regardless of their own domestic policy efforts.

Mafalda Duarte, the Portuguese national who will acquire the UN-backed $12bn green climate fund Next month, spoke to the FT about the challenges ahead as leaders gathered in Paris this week to discuss reforming climate finance.

“If we don’t have investments in developing countries, forget about climate,” Duarte said. “If India, Africa, Indonesia, China — if they don’t move, it doesn’t matter what we do in the developed world. . . it’s going to hit America, it’s going to hit Europe, it’s going to hit Europe.” Doesn’t matter.”

Rich countries are scrambling to meet financial commitments made at previous UN climate talks. According to the OECD, only $83.3bn of the $100bn for Adaptation Fund promised at the UN summit in Copenhagen 14 years ago had been raised by the 2020 target date.

Recently, rich countries have pledged money to poor countries to help them shift their energy systems from coal to renewable sources through the Just Energy Transition Partnership.

But the vast sums of money needed to deal with the climate crisis have prompted countries including the US and Europe to rely more heavily on multilateral lenders. Governments have urged the World Bank to expand its remit to address “global public goods” such as pandemic preparedness and climate action.

Duarte questioned whether leaders in the developed world were doing enough to create the political conditions to invest overseas.

“People talk about it in the dimension of global public goods, but are we doing enough for the population to understand what that means? It means you have to invest elsewhere, don’t you? That only in my country.

“You see the news, we’re going to reach 1.5C[of global temperature increase]before 2027,” Duarte said. “You need that group of global leaders to acknowledge that it exists, and act accordingly.”

Last December, the US Congress pledged just $1 billion to help poor countries deal with climate change, falling short of President Joe Biden’s promise that Washington would spend more than $11 billion annually by 2024 , even though it passed a massive domestic clean energy spending package.

Duarte also called for more women leaders as she prepared to take over the GCF, which was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal in 2020.

“The culture of the organization is one of my priorities,” said Duarte, who comes to the role after running a $10 billion climate investment fund.

She was speaking ahead of the latest allegations by female delegates of intimidation or harassment by their male counterparts at this month’s UN climate conference in Bonn, Germany.

Mexico, the US, Britain, Germany, Peru and Canada are among two dozen countries that wrote to the UN last week calling for action to “ensure a harassment-free environment”.

The letter, seen by the Financial Times, calls on the organizers to “pay special attention to the way women negotiators are being treated on (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) premises, both inside and outside the negotiating chambers, it Ensures that all participants feel part of a respectful and safe work environment”.

Duarte said she hopes to see “more and more” women in leadership roles in the climate world, and cited research showing that increased female empowerment was linked to better climate outcomes.

“We know that women make different decisions. . . why is it that women generally invest more on education and health than men when they have disposable income?” Duarte said.

“I’m not saying we don’t have a very liberal group of men who see (climate change) as an existential threat,” Duarte said. “But I do believe that if we looked at more women, we might see a more vocal response to a potential threat to our children.”

climate capital

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Explore FT’s coverage here.

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The new head of the world’s largest climate finance institution has warned that without clean energy investment in developing countries, the US and Europe will be “affected”, regardless of their own domestic policy efforts.

Mafalda Duarte, the Portuguese national who will acquire the UN-backed $12bn green climate fund Next month, spoke to the FT about the challenges ahead as leaders gathered in Paris this week to discuss reforming climate finance.

“If we don’t have investments in developing countries, forget about climate,” Duarte said. “If India, Africa, Indonesia, China — if they don’t move, it doesn’t matter what we do in the developed world. . . it’s going to hit America, it’s going to hit Europe, it’s going to hit Europe.” Doesn’t matter.”

Rich countries are scrambling to meet financial commitments made at previous UN climate talks. According to the OECD, only $83.3bn of the $100bn for Adaptation Fund promised at the UN summit in Copenhagen 14 years ago had been raised by the 2020 target date.

Recently, rich countries have pledged money to poor countries to help them shift their energy systems from coal to renewable sources through the Just Energy Transition Partnership.

But the vast sums of money needed to deal with the climate crisis have prompted countries including the US and Europe to rely more heavily on multilateral lenders. Governments have urged the World Bank to expand its remit to address “global public goods” such as pandemic preparedness and climate action.

Duarte questioned whether leaders in the developed world were doing enough to create the political conditions to invest overseas.

“People talk about it in the dimension of global public goods, but are we doing enough for the population to understand what that means? It means you have to invest elsewhere, don’t you? That only in my country.

“You see the news, we’re going to reach 1.5C[of global temperature increase]before 2027,” Duarte said. “You need that group of global leaders to acknowledge that it exists, and act accordingly.”

Last December, the US Congress pledged just $1 billion to help poor countries deal with climate change, falling short of President Joe Biden’s promise that Washington would spend more than $11 billion annually by 2024 , even though it passed a massive domestic clean energy spending package.

Duarte also called for more women leaders as she prepared to take over the GCF, which was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal in 2020.

“The culture of the organization is one of my priorities,” said Duarte, who comes to the role after running a $10 billion climate investment fund.

She was speaking ahead of the latest allegations by female delegates of intimidation or harassment by their male counterparts at this month’s UN climate conference in Bonn, Germany.

Mexico, the US, Britain, Germany, Peru and Canada are among two dozen countries that wrote to the UN last week calling for action to “ensure a harassment-free environment”.

The letter, seen by the Financial Times, calls on the organizers to “pay special attention to the way women negotiators are being treated on (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) premises, both inside and outside the negotiating chambers, it Ensures that all participants feel part of a respectful and safe work environment”.

Duarte said she hopes to see “more and more” women in leadership roles in the climate world, and cited research showing that increased female empowerment was linked to better climate outcomes.

“We know that women make different decisions. . . why is it that women generally invest more on education and health than men when they have disposable income?” Duarte said.

“I’m not saying we don’t have a very liberal group of men who see (climate change) as an existential threat,” Duarte said. “But I do believe that if we looked at more women, we might see a more vocal response to a potential threat to our children.”

climate capital

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Explore FT’s coverage here.

Are you curious about FT’s environmental sustainability commitments? Learn more about our science-based goals here