Germany puts up additional €126 mln for transitions in emerging and developing countries

The economy ministry (BMWK) is channelling an additional 126 million euros into the International Climate Initiative (IKI) in order to support decarbonisation efforts in emerging and developing economies, as well as making efforts to stay in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement goal to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5˚C. The initiative is one element of the German government’s international climate finance commitments and the new funds will go to existing projects. Minister Robert Habeck said in a press release that “the high world market prices for fossil energies as a result of the Russian war of aggression are having an impact not only in Germany and Europe, but also in developing and emerging countries, where they meet significantly lower incomes”.

There are two pillars to the IKI: a focus on energy conservation alongside a transition to renewable sources, and a greater investment in sustainable and climate-neutral infrastructure. Both will help to deliver decarbonisation across lower income countries which will be crucial in achieving global climate and development targets, the ministry said. The additional funding will go to countries in Asia, the MENA region, Africa and Latin America.

The German announcement follows the recent G7 summit in Bavaria, where Germany retained some focus on climate action whilst the Russian war against Ukraine was at the top the agenda. Several ‘just transition partnerships’ were discussed at the summit with developing and emerging economies.