Statement delivered by H.E. Seedy Keita, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Gambia
V20 MINISTERIAL DIALOGUE IX
16 October 2022
H.E. Seedy Keita, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Gambia
Thank you, Chair, Honorable V20 Finance Ministers, G20 partners, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen. We are experiencing a climate emergency that disproportionately affects vulnerable countries least responsible for it. Climate change has robbed the group of V20 vulnerable countries of 20 percent of our economic wealth. Due to high indebtedness, vulnerable countries lack the fiscal space to climate-proof their economies and deal with the current or future economic losses and damages caused by climate change.
We expect the Global Shield Against Climate Risks to deliver significantly increased pre-arranged financial protection to close the protection gap in vulnerable countries. As Co-Chair of the InsuResilience Global Partnership, I am pleased to announce that the organization structure of the Global Shield Against Climate Risks was approved at our High-Level Consultative Group Meeting held here in Washington on the 14 of October.
As such, we look forward to the Global Shield to commence its work in the Pathfinder countries which are as follows: Bangladesh, Ghana, Senegal, Costa Rica, Philippines, and Fiji. To ensure the best-suited options are selected for each national context, the Global Shield’s financial protection package will be connected to each Pathfinder country’s Climate Prosperity Plan as investment strategy to support maximum ambition climate action while enhancing socio-economic outcomes.
The Pathfinder countries are looking forward to working hand-in-hand with the G7 partners, multilateral donor agencies, the private sector, civil society, academia, and philanthropies to ensure the success the Global Shield and is successful launch at the 27 Conference of Parties through the United Nations framework convention on climate change in Egypt COP27, as well as its eventual scale up. With that I thank you all for your attention.
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