Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action
Climate change shapes economic policy – finance ministers to discuss reforms

The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action will hold its annual meeting on Tuesday 11 October. Finland will have an important role in the meeting, as Minister of Finance Annika Saarikko will chair the meeting jointly with Indonesia’s Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.

The ministers will discuss the work of the Climate Coalition in 2020–2021 and will determine its priorities for next year. The meeting will be held virtually in connection with the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.

The topics for discussion include:
•    integration of climate issues into economic policy and financing decisions
•    impacts of climate change and loss of biodiversity on economic decision-making and the finance ministries’ role in this change, and
•    reforms necessitated by the change, such as carbon pricing, green budgeting and a just transition.

The finance ministers will endorse the Coalition’s annual report. The annual meeting of the Coalition will pave the way for the finance ministers’ meeting on 3 November during the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

In addition to the finance ministers, the annual meeting will be attended by the Coalition’s institutional partners. The IMF will be represented by its Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, and the World Bank by President David Malpass. Professor Lord Nicholas Stern from the London School of Economics will also attend the meeting. He is the Chair of the Grantham Research Institute and holds an advisory role to the Coalition.

The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action was launched in Washington in April 2019 on Finland’s initiative. Over the past six months, the Coalition has grown by more than 10 new member countries. The Coalition now has 64 member countries, each committed to a set of principles known as the Helsinki Principles. The leading idea and objective of the Coalition is to bring climate issues to the core of economic policy and financing decisions and to understand climate risks as part of the planning of financing decisions.

Inquiries:
Pekka Morén, Senior Ministerial Adviser, tel. +358 2955 30290, pekka.moren(at)gov.fi