MFA: Green Climate Fund Executive Director Yannick Glemarec to visit Finland

The Green Climate Fund is one of the main channels of Finland’s international climate financing. During his visit, Executive Director Glemarec will meet with Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Krista Mikkonen, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Elina Kalkku and several Finnish leaders in climate, environmental and development policy.

Dr. Glemarec will have a discussion with Leif Schulman, Director General of the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and Eeva Furman, Director of the Environmental Policy Centre on research data in the sector and innovations promoting a carbon-neutral, resource-efficient society.

The Director General will also meet with representatives from the Inter-Party Energy Reform Group of the Finnish Parliament. Glemarec will meet with Permanent Under-Secretary Leena Mörttinen from the Ministry of Finance to discuss sustainable development funding, while his meeting with Special Representative Pekka Morén will focus on the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action.

Finland is known around the world for its high level of expertise in meteorology. During his visit, Glemarec will visit the R&D and innovation centre of Vaisala, a company that manufactures environmental measurement equipment and systems, and he will also meet with experts from the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

What is the Green Climate Fund (GCF)?

• The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the world’s largest climate fund and the official financing mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• The main objective of the Fund is to support low-carbon and climate-resilient development in developing countries.
• As a party to the UN Climate Conventions, Finland is committed to international climate efforts. Finland has allocated a total of EUR 100 million to the first replenishment of the GCF for 2020–2023.
• The funding for the GCF is equally targeted at climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. As a result of extreme weather phenomena, the need for adaptation financing has increased significantly, especially in the world’s poorest countries. The urgency of the measures is highlighted in the report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 9 August, which found that climate change is progressing faster than previously estimated.
• The first replenishment period of the GCF is currently under way. A total of 177 projects and programmes have been approved so far. They are expected to bring increased resilience to 500 million people and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. In 2020, GCF projects were implemented in 77 different countries.

Inquiries:
Jan Wahlberg, Climate Ambassador, tel. +358 50567 7090
The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi.