France and Germany team up with world’s biggest investment fund to act on climate

The governments of France and Germany have entered into an unusual alliance with BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment fund, to achieve progress in unlocking private capital for investments in climate action, Astrid Dörner and Peter Köhler write in the Handelsblatt. At the second One Planet Summit in New York, Germany and France officially announced the partnership with BlackRock and several foundations. “We have to change the direction of one third of the world’s investments to finance climate action,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, adding that “the financial sector’s philosophy has to change” to contribute to the fight against global warming. Jochen Flasbarth, state secretary in the German environment ministry, said “the Paris Agreement obliges us to adjust financial investment flows to support a resilient low-carbon development.” According to the article, the funds could be used for investments in sustainable energy generation and mobility in the fast-growing developing and industrialising countries in Asia, Africa, and South America.
At the summit, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that it will align all of its activities with the Paris Agreement's targets. EIB president Werner Hoyer said the EU's investment bank will seek to bridge financing gaps for climate action and mitigation measures as well as channel funds towards solar power expansion. "Multilateral cooperation is the only way to achieve success in tackling climate change and sustainable development. We are here to demonstrate that multilateralism works and that we will do all we can to defend it," Hoyer said.

Read the article in German here, the EIB press release here and a Reuters article on the topic in English here.                                  

See the CLEW article German financial sector expects EU standards to boost green finance for more information.