‘Green growth week’ to promote eco-friendly financing

With financial support being key to fostering eco-friendly growth, the upcoming Global Green Growth Week event in September seeks to provide a link between the developing world and multinational banks, organizers said Thursday. 

The Global Green Growth Institute plans to present the first-ever weeklong event on Jeju Island on Sept. 5-9, under the theme of “Maximizing Impact for Inclusive and Sustainable Green Growth.”

With a three-pronged focus on finance, renewable energy and social inclusion, the program will bring together some 1,200 top members of governments, international organizations, businesses, academia and civic groups from around the globe. 

The Green Growth Finance Summit slated for Sept. 8 is a key feature, which would help explore various funding solutions and ways to “unblock the barriers to capital flowing,” GGGI Director-General Yvo de Boer said. 

“The GGGI is not a financial institution but a policy advisory institution. And we see a great opportunity to link policy skills of the GGGI with financial capabilities of multilateral development banks. So we’re working closely together at the country level,” he said at a news conference in Seoul. 

According to a recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the world will need the annual investment of $485 billion for the next 25 years, or a total of $12.1 trillion, in renewable power projects to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius as agreed at the Paris climate conference last December. 

To facilitate capital injections, the GGGI launched a new partnership with numerous multilateral development banks including Asian Development Bank and African Development Bank on the sidelines of the Paris conference, de Boer noted. 

The collaboration is set to bear fruit in such areas as Vietnam and Cambodia, where the GGGI is carrying out an analysis on urban solutions, after which the ADB will provide the financial support. 

“Mobilizing such large amounts of capital may seem daunting considering the size of the investments needed, but they are by no means impossible,” the director-general said. 

Among other major items to be launched during the week are the Asia Regional Policy Dialogue, where related countries will discuss policy options to expedite the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy, a green growth knowledge-sharing forum and country-focus sessions. 

Former Indonesian President and current chair of the GGGI council Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stressed the importance of renewable energy and social inclusion in lifting poverty and promoting sustainable growth. 

Citing the Paris accord and other relevant agreements, the international community is poised to embark on the “most ambitious and grand project of economic transformation in history,” he said, expressing hopes for the forthcoming event to serve as a “platform to mainstream green growth throughout all segments of the world economy.” 

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)