Although there has been significant growth in climate finance in the last decade, developed countries still struggle to meet the goal of raising USD 100 billion annually as decided at the 2009 COP15 meeting in Copenhagen. Beyond issues of quantity, concerns persist regarding a potential financing gap—such that accrued resources do not flow to projects which require them most—and the continued favouring of mitigation efforts over adaptation projects. Furthermore, the lack of consensus on a universal standard for defining, categorising, and accounting for climate finance limits possibilities for meaningful comparison between developed state contributions and hampers effective allocation of resources to critical sectors or regions. The need for collective action by states, international organisations, and private actors to address climate challenges remains pressing, raising important questions of how the world should proceed.
- Are the developments regarding Loss and Damage financing at the latest COP27 indicative of increased global support for environmental responsibility and a greater commitment among developed nations towards meeting the demands of climate finance?
- Given the significant variation in wealth and capacities within the categories of “developed” and “developing” countries, do we need to develop new ways of classifying and broadening the group of donor countries to encourage more global financial involvement? Would such a broadening risk undermining efficiency?
- What lessons might existing initiatives such as the Green Climate Fund have for planned initiatives such as the Loss and Damage Fund? Can existing multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF be more geared toward enhancing the volume and efficiency of climate financing?
- Will increased geopolitical competition provide greater incentive for individual great powers to spearhead climate finance efforts or will the increasing desire to decouple economically increase the cost of coordinating a global response to climate issues?
Meet the speakers and chair
Patricia Espinosa (@PEspinosaC) is Founding Partner and CEO of onepoint5, an ESG consulting firm specialized in climate change. A career diplomat, she is a respected leader on the global stage with more than 35 years of experience at the highest level in diplomacy, multilateral negotiations, and international relations. Prior to founding onepoint5, Ambassador Espinosa served as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2016-2022), Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico (2006-2012) and Mexico’s Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany (2013-2016), and to Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia (2002-2006). In 2012, she was appointed Ambassador Emeritus of Mexico, the highest recognition the Mexican Government awards its diplomats. She has also been decorated by the governments of Germany, Argentina, Austria, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, Guatemala, Netherlands, Paraguay, and Peru. Ambassador Espinosa is widely recognized as an authoritative voice on issues related to sustainability, environmental stewardship, gender equality and the protection of human rights.
Sandeep Sengupta is currently the global policy lead for climate change at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) based in Switzerland. He has worked for over 15 years on a wide range of environment, development and natural resource management issues across government, academia and international organizations. He holds a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Oxford and a masters degree from the London School of Economics (LSE). His academic research has focused on the global politics of climate change and its evolution over the last three decades. He is also a visiting faculty at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, where he teaches courses on climate change politics and governance.
Robert Falkner (@robert_falkner) is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Distinguished Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto. He serves as the Academic Dean of the TRIUM Global EMBA programme, a partnership between NYU Stern, LSE and HEC Paris. His research interests are in international relations, global environmental politics and international political economy. He has published widely in these fields, including books on Great Powers, Climate Change, and Global Environmental Responsibilities (co-edited, 2022) and Environmentalism and Global International Society (2021). Until 2022, he was the Research Director of the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
More information about the event
This event is co-hosted by LSE IDEAS and the LSE Global Economic Governance Commission
Event hashtags: #LSEGEGC #LSEGlobalGovernance
LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. Through sustained engagement with policymakers and opinion-formers, IDEAS provides a forum that informs policy debate and connects academic research with the practice of diplomacy and strategy.
The LSE Global Economic Governance Commission is a forum for debating and redesigning global economic governance. The Commission hosts public and closed-door panels, lectures, and workshops on all matters relating to global economic governance. Event details are announced online by LSE and LSE IDEAS.