Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action (CAPE)
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Last update: January 2022
The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action (the ‘Coalition’) is a Ministerial-level group guided by the Helsinki Principles with the objective of mainstreaming climate change aspects in economic and financial policies and public finance, as well as promoting domestic and global action on climate change. It aims to achieve this by: (i) facilitating the exchange of expertise and experience on relevant policies; (ii) serving as a forum to promote common standards and best practices; and (iii) supporting coherent and coordinated responses on climate change issues.
In December 2019, at the COP 25 in Madrid, Spain, the Coalition officially launched the Santiago Action Plan, a vision document that outlines the initiative’s strategy in making collective progress on the Helsinki Principles in 2020 and beyond. It reflects Members’ engagement to work actively towards common goals of mainstreaming climate change and lays out in detail the priority work areas and deliverables under the Helsinki Principles.
As of January 2022, the coalition gathers 67 member countries representing 40% of CO2 emissions and 64% of global GDP.
Why it matters
The Coalition gathers finance ministers, which hold the keys to unlocking climate action
Finance Ministers can play a leading role by incentivizing climate-informed public expenditure and utilizing climate fiscal tools such as carbon taxes and emissions trading systems to cut emissions and prioritize low-carbon growth.
The Coalition has established key areas of focus for Finance Ministers to mainstream climate action
The Helsinki Principles are designed to be aspirational; they are non-binding. However, the work program of the Coalition aims to help members make collective progress on the Helsinki Principles.
The Helsinki Principle 5 workstream aims to develop tools for mobilizing private sector financing, share experience, support international standard setting, and share best practice.
Key actions and deliverables under Helsinki Principle 5 include:
- Exploring approaches to encourage financial institutions to align their practices with the NDCs and the goals of the Paris agreement.
- Sharing experience on the issuance of green bonds and use of other financial instruments.
- Identifying strategies to incorporate climate risks and opportunities into investment decisions.
- Identifying measures to address the issue of high cost of capital for adaptation and mitigation investments in developing countries.
- Supporting the efforts of multilateral development banks in mobilizing climate finance, and accelerating the dissemination of international best practices.
Main areas of work related to climate mainstreaming:
The Helsinki Principles set out the key areas for policy engagement of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action in support of the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The Santiago Action Plan takes the next step by laying out the priority workstreams and deliverables for 2020 and beyond aimed at making progress on each of those principles.