Statement delivered by Ms. Fatima Yasmin, Secretary of the Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance, People’s Republic of Bangladesh

V20 MINISTERIAL DIALOGUE VIII- 21 April, 2022

 Statements

10:00 pm Dhaka time/12:00 pm Washington DC time

Statement delivered by Ms. Fatima Yasmin, Secretary of the Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance, People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Ms. Fatima Yasmin

Secretary of the Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance, People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Thank you very much, sir.

Honorable, Finance Ministers of the V20 countries,

The presented states from the G20 countries and the partner organizations,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As-salamu alaykum, and a very good day to you all.  Following the momentum of our first V20 Climate Vulnerable Finance Summit, and V20 Ministerial Dialogue VII hosted by the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in July 2021 where I last spoke to you all, the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance of Bangladesh have convened virtually the Senior Officials of V20 Ministries of Finance twice in the last year.

In September 2021, we convened to discuss accelerated mobilization of financial resources and investment for V20 climate action in line with the V20 action plan and the collective engagement by the V20 governments, groups of governments, and international partners, that served to advance the V20 groups’ shared interest and resource mobilization priorities and V20’s plan activities and preparation work in the run up to the major events such as World Bank and IMF annual meetings in October 2021 and COP in November 2021.

In March 2022, we re-convened in preparation of the V20 Ministerial Dialogue VIII being hosted today during the World Bank spin meetings.  The Senior Officials of V20 are most pleased with the progress achieved and that we have agreed on a body of the document which we respectfully submit herewith to the ministerial body this evening. Together with the report, the documents have been circulated ahead of today’s meeting.

The documents cover the draft decision we are proposing for your consideration today encompassing the key business items of the V20 under consideration and I am pleased to share its content with you.

We have written reports of the Senior Officials Meeting of 27th and 28th, September 2021, and 28th, March 2022.  Together with its annexes towards the continual development of the V20’s initiatives.

Considering the urgency of our situation as climate change intensifies and arising from the findings of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, growing losses and damages due to insufficient adaptation responses and a high financial protection gap is a fast-emerging major macroeconomic concern for the V20. The documents thus include the updated V20 work program, part of which are the initiatives on Accelerated Finalizing Mechanism to buy down the cost of capital,  the continued implementation of the Sustainable Insurance Facility, and the design and testing of the new international loss and damage financing facility to initially support most affected communities within the V20.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have put together the V20 Climate Finance Viewpoints with 15 points towards making the climate finance architecture more accessible, effective, and specific, and equally important is to contribute to shaping the Global Goal on Adaptation and the new climate finance target for 2025 onwards.  We aspire for this to contribute to a reconstructed Global Financial architecture required to fix the long-term structural challenges for climate vulnerable countries.

The V20 viewpoints on the Global Shield against Climate Risks, which underlined the importance of mobilizing and providing access to new and timely financial resources, tackling affordability barriers through time-bound subsidization strategies and to develop effective and appropriate delivery channels under the G20 and V20 InsuResiliencelobal Partnership, and as a key contribution to the G7 proposal.  We are pleased to continue to strengthen efforts with the G7 and G20 to reduce the financial protection gap.

Following the previous V20 commitments to support carbon pricing by working to establish pricing redeem by 2025.  We are pleased to announce the new V20 Carbon Financing Development Program to support market development and piloting efforts beginning with a group of nine countries.

The partnerships with Insurance Development Forum on the Global Risk Modeling Alliance (GRMA)  to make available risk and resilience analytics.  We are pleased to share that V20 is included in the governance of the initiative and that implementation efforts begin this year.  Access to data has long been a concern for V20 members and this can serve as an important contribution to closing this gap.

As Bangladesh finalizes the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan, we are also pleased to inform everyone of ongoing efforts to develop Climate Prosperity Plans for V20 member countries in collaboration with CVF counterparts that supports fellow members of the V20 who are keen to pursue the Climate Prosperity Agenda.

As analytics points to the fact that resources are not correlating to where science and practice indicates vulnerabilities located, we look forward to joining the Climate Vulnerable Forum in co-commissioning the third ‘Climate Vulnerable Monitor’ into the global impact of climate change and likewise support iterations of the ‘Low Carbon Monitor’ project to include economic implications especially in the face of current vulnerability of expensive fossil fuel, especially for the net importers.

We are pleased that under the Bangladesh presidency we confirm the following countries as new members of the V20 following the Glasgow Declaration of the CVF in November 2021.  The countries are Benin, Eswatini, Guinea, Guyana, Liberia, Nicaragua, and Uganda.  We are also pleased to announce Ghana as the next president of CVF and the future V20 Chair following the conclusion of the tenure of Bangladesh in 2022.

Finally, it has been foreseen that V20 would reconvene in October of 2022 for the ninth V20 Ministerial Dialogue, and we encourage members to collaborate actively throughout the year.

With that, Honorable Chair, this represents the work of the V20 Senior Officials.

I thank you for your support and the distinguished ministers’ and the delegates’ attention and consideration of our report, and the draft decision and the related items for adoption to date.

The latest IPCC report has made it very clear that this decade is our now or never for decisive action.  We look forward to working together among the V20, G7, G20, and the partners to bring urgency, scale, and quality of investment to economies, and communities in the frontline of the climate emergency.

I thank you all, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you once again.

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