Concept note and draft programme
Ahead of COP27, the UN system, leveraging its convening power, network of experts and influencers at regional levels, partnered with the incoming Egyptian Presidency of COP27 and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions for COP26 and COP27 to organise a series of five regional forums on “Towards COP27: Regional Forums on Climate Initiatives to Finance Climate Action and the SDGs” bringing together key stakeholders from public and private sectors, to catalyse additional private sector investment in climate mitigation and adaptation in line with the SDGs. Participants, including public and private financial institutions and countries, initiatives and organisations preparing projects worked together to identify and address financing bottlenecks, to showcase and learn from success stories of private sector investment and share investment-ready climate initiatives in Member States to spur further investment.
To deliver on climate change and sustainable development, the UNECE region must optimize the management of endowments of natural resources, including critical raw materials (CRMs). A resilient, sustainable and ethical supply of CRMs is essential for clean energy, mobility transitions, and digital transformation. Resiliency in resource supply requires careful attention to several important environmental, economic and social considerations. Governments, industry, the financial sector, and civil society must cooperate to share relevant social and environmental information and knowledge.
The event brought together high-level policy and decision-makers from the Ministries of Economy, Finance, Trade, Industry, Energy and Environment in the UNECE region. Mining and metals industry leaders, the financial sector, and civil society representatives were invited to participate, along with key stakeholders in Sustainable Consumption and Production and Circular Economy. This built on the post-COP26 event that UNECE and the United Kingdom jointly convened on ‘Future-proofing supply of critical minerals for net-zero: Cross-sectoral perspectives’ in November 2021 that gathered over 300 experts.
The event created momentum and advanced a set of partnerships that will help an agreement on enhanced regional collaboration develop a robust, sustainability-focused information framework, investment roadmap and business case for the assurance of CRMs and will eventually help crowd in climate finance and other sources of finance to the field of sustainably managing CRMs.
The event took place in a hybrid format at the Palais des Nations and via Zoom on Monday 17 October 2022 from 9:00 to 18:00 hrs.
Concept Note and Draft Programme
Concept note and draft programme are available here.