PiA 2020: Ministries of Finance Mobilizing for Climate Action

NDC implementation goes far beyond hitting national climate targets, providing a pathway to create jobs, reduce poverty, improve public goods and services, and meet countries’ sustainable development goals. Moreover, climate change has long-term impacts on output, jobs, and macroeconomic indicators such as inflation and exchange rates. This highlights the importance of involving ministries of finance (MoF) in developing and implementing ambitious—yet realistic—climate action.

Given finance ministries’ fundamental role in climate action, engaging them has always been a Partnership priority. The Coalition of Finance Ministers is an important complement to this work. It was established in April 2019 and quickly developed the Santiago Action Plan, comprising 6 principles to help countries mobilize and align necessary finance to implement NDCs; establish best practices like climate budgeting and strategies for green investment and procurement; and factor climate risks and vulnerabilities into members’ economic planning.

Under Jamaica and Uganda’s leadership, the NDC Partnership Support Unit, together with the World Bank, supports work on Helsinki Principle 6, which sets out objectives “for engaging actively in the domestic preparation and implementation of NDCs”. In 2020, the Principle 6 working group developed a report based on extensive consultations with Coalition and Partnership members. The paper outlines concrete pathways to actively engage MoFs in NDC review, development, and mainstreaming. The report’s results were shared among all Coalition of Finance Ministers members and a special webinar was organized open to Partnership members and beyond. More than 300 stakeholders attended the dissemination events.

For more information on the Partnership’s work with the Coalition of Finance Ministers, see:

• A blog on the Coalition
• The Coalition report

This is a PiA 2020 story: Browse the multimedia version or PDF version.