April 2020 – Present
Vivid Economics, Adam Smith International and Factor are working together to provide BEIS with evidence to inform a strategic approach to deploying UK International Climate Finance for mitigation action in developing countries. I am a senior adviser on the project, currently assessing a long list of options and selecting some 15 for in depth work.
A radical decoupling of emissions from economic growth is needed to achieve the ambitious emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees – and the window for effective action is narrowing.
Investing in climate action will be costly, but also offers unprecedented opportunities, inaction is not an option and indeed will be more costly. Unique avenues for leapfrogging and supporting a just transition exist. UK support can play a critical role in rapidly transforming markets in developing countries to catalyse public and private resources for aligning development with a 1.5 degrees C warming goal.
Finance and interventions need to move beyond project-based approaches with little potential to transform markets, towards climate finance that has the potential for lasting impact at scale.
Author: Hans Verolme
Hans Verolme is the founder of the Climate Advisers Network and has extensive analytical and advisory experience in Africa, South America and Asia and is widely recognized as an expert across the entire spectrum of low carbon transitions. With over 20 years of international negotiations experience, he has been a valued adviser to governments, foundations and civil society. Prior to setting up the Climate Advisers Network, he advised the British ambassador in Washington, DC, and served as Global and US Climate Change Director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). All politics is local, climate politics is global. Hans has worked in, amongst others, Barbados, Bhutan, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, European Union, Georgia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Myanmar, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States.