Ban welcomes Green Climate Fund 9.4bn pledges

Developments towards the Green Climate Fund (GCF) demonstrated that governments increasingly understand both the benefits derived from climate action and the growing risks of delay, UN Chief said on Thursday.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the pledges of more than USD 9.4 billion made by governments towards the initial capitalisation of the GCF at the Berlin Pledging Conference, his press office said in a statement.
These pledges go far to kick-start the operationalization of the Fund, and follow on the heels of other significant climate actions such as the US-China joint announcement and the decision by the European Union as well as positive commitments reaffirmed by other leaders in recent meetings including at the G20 and the September Climate Summit, he said.
The Secretary General underscored the importance of climate finance for securing a meaningful, universal climate agreement in Paris in 2015 and for catalysing action on the ground. Ban urged all developed countries that have not yet pledged to the GCF to do so by COP 20 in Lima.
Furthermore, the UN official also encouraged those developing countries that are in a position to do so, to consider making voluntary contributions to the Fund in Lima.
Such pledges, Ban noted, also provides much needed public finance which is key to unlocking investments at a much larger scale from private sources.