High Level 
Finance Dialogue: 
Not Just Another Talk Shop, Please

Rolling into week two of COP20, ECO extends a warm welcome to Ministers and reminds that essential to success in Lima is concrete progress on climate finance. And what better time to do so than at Tuesday’s High-level Ministerial Dialogue on climate finance? The Secretariat frames the Dialogue as a unique opportunity for Ministers to highlight that public finance is flowing and confirm their intention to scale it up.

Ahead of the event, however, there is a strong sense of malaise. Ambition is diminishing and the importance of defining pathways to reach 100 billion USD by 2020 is being set aside. So right here and now, let’s get down to business.

Tip number 1:  Draw up a roadmap to 2020

A 2020 finance roadmap is clearly essential to scaling up to reach the 100 billion level. This first step will reassure that public financial flows will not only continue but will also increase.

Tip number 2: Clarity and predictability

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: financial flows need to be predictable in order to engage climate action effectively. Not only that, countries need to be clear on what finance is public and what is not.

Tip number 3: Spell out the details

Further reassurance can be secured by clearly spelling out the sources of finance as well as the channels and instruments to be deployed.