Ban Ki-moon commends Germany’s climate action leadership, stresses urgency to close agricultural adaptation finance gap
Ban Ki-moon congratulates the government for increasing annual climate finance ambitions to €6 billion by 2025 and urges a shift toward agricultural adaptation
WIEN, NOT, AUSTRIA, March 14, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Ban Ki-moon, the 8th United Nations Secretary-General and Co-chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens (BKMC) thanked Germany for their leadership on climate finance and commended Chancellor Olaf Scholz for reaffirming his country’s ambitions to increase climate finance to at least €6 billion per year by 2025. Ban Ki-moon emphasized the urgency of agricultural adaptation to climate change during consultations with Cem Özdemir, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture of Germany, and Jennifer Morgan, State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action, of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.In a meeting with Minister Cem Özdemir, Ban Ki-moon congratulated the Minister’s recent success in signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union (AU) to establish an "Agricultural Policy Dialogue" between Germany and Africa to make the African agricultural and food systems more resilient and climate-friendly. The BKMC Co-chair mentioned the synergies between the agreement and the BKMC’s goal to build the resilience of smallholder farmers in Africa to the impacts of climate change. “We must address two urgent issues; increase the amount of climate finance for agricultural adaptation and support smallholder farmers to access available funding. Global champions like CGIAR, - the world's largest publicly funded agricultural research network -, need to receive more funding for the acceleration of climate adaptation in agriculture.”
Minister Özdemir shared his hopes to increase his Ministry’s work in supporting smallholder farmers in their agricultural adaptation. He noted that the new agreement with the AU shall create opportunities to bring the voices of African smallholder farmers - especially women and youth - to the decision-making table. He stated, “Hunger is hitting hard where the climate crisis is already heavily impacting. As the 4th biggest economy in the world, it is Germany’s responsibility to help build the resilience of African smallholder farmers and invest in research and development institutions.”
Addressing State Secretary Jennifer Morgan, Ban Ki-moon said; “It is great to see that Germany is keen to increase its climate finance contributions to at least €6 billion per year by 2025. Thank you for your great personal leadership together with Canada on the Progress Report on the Climate Finance Delivery Plan. This is a great step to increase accountability and highlight the areas that need attention. We need a clear roadmap on how to achieve our climate finance goals and mechanisms to hold countries accountable to deliver their fair share, especially when it comes to clear pathways for doubling finance for climate adaptation.”
Ban Ki-moon mentioned his concern regarding the current trend of decreasing official development assistance budgets globally as this would mean less availability of funding to be channeled toward addressing the immense and precarious climate finance gap. Research and development are key to unlocking solutions to address agricultural climate adaptation, which is why institutions like CGIAR need funds of €1bn annually to continue with their vital work. Global leaders like Germany are important role models for other donor countries to reach this funding goal.
In return, Jennifer Morgan shared her appreciation for Ban Ki-moon’s invitation to the High-Level Vienna Roundtable on Accelerating Action for Climate Adaptation in September 2022. She underlined that “Germany is committed to at least €6 billion of climate finance contributions latest by 2025 and meeting the targets set by the Paris Climate Agreement. We must work together to stop world hunger and invest in agricultural adaptation to support smallholder farmers who are on the frontline of climate change. It is on us to turn global ideas for climate adaptation into suitable solutions at the local level.”
Encouraging all relevant German champions, including Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze to build upon its current leadership and climate adaptation agenda, Ban Ki-moon urged State Secretary Morgan “to continue securing financing and concrete implementation actions together with other countries and institutions, most prominently at the upcoming COP28.” International events on climate change, such as the Petersberg Dialogue in early May, co-convened by Germany and the UAE, should be leveraged to bring adaptation into the center of discussions.
The Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens looks forward to furthering the relationship with Germany leading up to COP28 in Dubai, for its Elevating Agricultural Adaptation program which calls for financial and political commitments to tackle agricultural adaptation and build the resilience of smallholder farmers in the Global South.
About Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens
The Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens’ mission is to foster leadership for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement by inspiring current decision makers and empowering the next generation of leaders - change makers. Working with governments, civil society, academia, and international organizations the BKMC reaches more than 770,000 people around the world. Located in Vienna, Austria, the BKMC is co-chaired by the 8th Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon and the 11th President of the Republic of Austria, Heinz Fisch
Katre Olmez
Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens
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