Steve Zwick

UN Negotiators are gathering this week and next in Bonn, Germany to move the Paris Agreement forward. After that, the World Bank is hosting a one-week meeting in Barcelona called “Innovate4Climate”, which is designed to get money flowing towards the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement. World Bank boss James Close says the aims and objectives are nothing short of massive.

10 May 2017 | Climate finance is more than just carbon markets, and the decade-old Carbon Expo is re-launching this year in Barcelona as “Innovate4Climate“. Ecosystem Marketplace is launching its annual State of Voluntary Carbon Markets report at the event, which runs from 22 to 25 May.

Building on this week’s climate talks in Bonn, the event is designed to lay the foundations of the new green economy derived from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

Here, World Bank Climate Change Director James Close explains the objectives of Innovate4Climate and the main future challenges of the green economy:

What is Innovate4Climate Finance and Markets Week?

Well, we are really excited to be launching the first Innovate4Climate Finance and Markets Week which will take place in Barcelona from the 22nd to the 25th of May. It’s a great opportunity to get together all the key actors in climate finance to start working in how we can get the kind of money that we need the climate action to support the Paris agreement. We are also very enthusiastic about the dialogue on innovation and the new ideas that will drive carbon markets and carbon pricing both in the private sector and the public sector to enable trillions of dollars of finance to apply it.

Why is ‘unlocking the trillions’ the focus this year?

Unlocking the trillions is essential to being able to deliver the national climate plans that the countries are committed throw the national determined contributions (NDC) as part of the Paris Agreement. We know that there is vast amount of capital available for this type of investment. But we need to work together between the public sector and the private sector, between financiers and developers to enable this to happen at the pace scale which is required.

What outcomes can we expect?

At the end of this event we want to have driven a new conversation about climate action. Whom it brings together the major players who are able to talk at the same language about the opportunities and what each requires from one to another. We can build this platform for a huge conversation that is going to drive the type of action that want among the stakeholders, whether is national governments, global negotiators, private investors, the pension’s funds managers who are looking for opportunities to invest for a long term investments. This is going to be a really exciting dialogue and we really want this to move forward at pace and scale in a way to transform the nature of the conversation around climate action.