To Ban Ki-moon: Champion public funds for climate finance, fight greenwashing of green bonds

In light of this week’s U.N. General Assembly and Climate Summit, 118 groups from 37 countries urged U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (1) to ensure that private finance is not counted as international climate finance, and (2) to work against the greenwashing of private investment, particularly in the exponentially-growing green bond market. The Secretary General had named green bonds as one of a handful of areas in which the summit was expected to deliver major outcomes; this resulted in pledges emerging for some $30 billion in green bonds by 2015.

(International climate finance is the provision of funds by developed countries to help developing nations adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and embark on environmentally-sound development pathways.)

Check out the letter to Ban Ki-moon, as well as a new briefing on green bonds by Friends of the Earth U.S., International Rivers and BankTrack.

Photo credit: UN Photos