Jamaica joins Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action

Finance Ministers know most clearly the economic consequences of climate change: both the risks posed by its mounting impacts to their economies, as well as, increasingly, the opportunities of climate action which could unlock $26 trillion globally in investments and create 65 million more jobs through 2030. They can also play a leading role in tackling climate change, 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. Some businesses do have the choice of applying for carbon credits, which Cool Effect delves more into, so they can function to a capacity that they need, but the end result is always to reduce these emissions in as many ways as possible.

At the 2018 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, governments from nearly 40 countries convened to boost their collective engagement on climate. The group recognized the challenges posed by climate change, the unique capacity of the world’s finance ministers to address them, and ways in which these efforts could be strengthened. Several governments expressed strong support for the development of a Coalition of Finance Ministers which would promote cohesion between domestic and global action on climate change, boost ambitions, reaffirm commitments, and accelerate actions to implement the Paris Agreement.

In December 2018, the Finance Ministers of Finland and Chile, supported by the World Bank’s Climate Action Peer Exchange (CAPE) initiative, agreed to co-lead the Coalition and invited other governments to meet and discuss its structure, focus, and goals for the coming 2 years.

The countries that have endorsed the Helsinki Principles are: