Secretary Yellen delivers remarks on the Biden-Harris Administration's international climate agenda.

e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Ellen Secretary of the Department of TR of the United States [Music] the treasury Department's approach to advance the Biden Harris administration's International climate and nature and biodiversity agenda first strengthening relationships with allies and Partners second making the International Financial architecture work better for countries and third harnessing the power of markets but before I speak about each of these aspects let me step back here in BM with the Amazon rainforest close by the importance of our Collective work is palpable and it's undeniable climate change poses a daily and existential threat to individuals communities and countries it harms human health damages homes and businesses and strains government budgets it poses risks across sectors of our economy from agriculture to infrastructure and the harsh reality is that the people in countries with fewer resources to prepare and respond often must bear even greater costs in the Amazon and elsewhere we also see another concerning Trend the unprecedented and accelerating loss of Nature and biodiversity like climate change this loss has wide ranging impacts from Dr driving migration and fragility to increasing food and water insecurity and we're in a vicious cycle climate change accelerates nature and biodiversity loss while this loss turns carbon sinks into carbon sources and eliminates natural infrastructure that supports resilience to climate change put simply neglected to address climate change and the loss of Nature and biodiversity is not just bad Environmental Policy it is also bad Economic Policy but being so close to the Magnificent Amazon is also a reminder that the transition to a lower carbon global economy is also the sing Single greatest opportunity of of the 21st century the transition will require no less than $3 trillion in New Capital from many sources each year between now and 2050 this can be leveraged to support Pathways to sustainable and inclusive growth including for countries that have historically received less investment so the Biden Harris Administration has made supporting the transition to Net Zero a top priority and the treasury Department is playing a key role at home we're implementing the inflation reduction act the most significant climate legislation in our nation's history it is driving hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in Clean Energy Technologies and industries that will Propel us toward our climate goals and fuel our economic growth we launched the Net Zero principles for financing and investment to provide guidance to us financial institutions pursuing Net Zero commitments and we and other federal agencies together put forward principles for respons responsible participation in voluntary carbon markets our Ambitions at home are matched by our Ambitions abroad we know that we can only achieve our climate and economic goals from reducing Global emissions to adapting and building resilience from strengthening markets to bolstering supply chains if we also lead efforts far beyond our our borders so let me talk about the tools we're using to achieve these goals starting with strengthening relationships with our allies and partners since the start of this Administration President Biden is focused on deepening ties with allies and partners around the world including to pursue joint work on climate from South America to Asia we've advanced in initiatives that bring us closer to achieving our climate goals and benefit all of our economies when I visited an American company's lithium conversion plant in antofagasta Chile this spring I saw firsthand the product of our efforts to bolster critical minerals Supply chains idb's ongoing work to assess bottlenecks and opportunities will support enhancing competitiveness and attracting investment across America's partnership for economic Prosperity countries we've worked with International Partners to launch ambitious Just Energy transition Partnerships or jet peas with Indonesia South Africa and Vietnam to accelerate their just transition positions and strengthen their economies we're now seeing financing start to flow to support policy changes and product projects we've also focused on making sure climate is highest high on the agendas of Finance Ministries from together learning how to integrate climate risks into our macroeconomic models to jointly realizing climate related opport opportunities earlier this month the United States announced that we will provide $50 million to Brazil's Amazon fund this year the first installment of President Biden's $500 million commitment just this week treasury launched a partnership with fenda to strengthen our collaboration on advancing effective climate action our work will span and bolstering clean energy Supply chains to collaborating on carbon Market Integrity principles from developing innovative solutions to protect nature and Safeguard biodiversity to strengthening the climate Finance architecture this will include a focus on debt for nature swaps which treasury is conducted for 25 years supporting 23 Deb treatment agreements with 14 countries that have significant tropical forests or coral reefs including many in Latin America we're now working to develop principles that can drive the deployment of this tool to support countries around the world treasury has also been focused on making the International Financial architecture both individual aspects and the system as a whole work better for countries we cannot sustain progress on reducing poverty or achieve the sustainable development goals without more and better support for climate mitigation adaptation and resilience so we need an architecture from the multilateral development Banks to the climate and environment trust funds to the IM F's resilience and sustainability trust an architecture that works as a system to deliver at speed and scale the financial Technical and policy assistance that developing countries need to achieve their sustainable development and climate goals three years ago shortly after taking office I convene the heads of the mdbs to encourage them to significantly raise their climate Ambitions and to discuss concrete actions they could take to mainstream climate change in their operations just under two years ago I called for evolving the mdbs and progress is since accelerated the World Bank including thanks to president Bang's leadership is now confronting the reality of clim climate change it's putting it at the center of the bank's agenda and providing greater resources to tackle it the regional development Banks including the idb have stepped up as well as we now work to set new targets for climate Finance we build on developed countries having provided and mobilized a record almost $116 billion in climate Finance for developing countries in 2022 40% of this was through the mdbs which increased their climate Finance by more than 20% between 2021 and 2022 and addressing climate change is now part of the mdbs DNA they're better equipped to include climate impacts in diagnostic tools and to provide targeted incentives for climate projects they're working towards linning all projects with Paris agreement goals and screening all projects for adaptation countries are benefiting from a broader Suite of tools to respond to climate related shocks and crises and we see greater Innovation and responsiveness across the system from enabling exceptional access to financing for high income small island developing states to piloting climate resilient debt Clauses the mdbs have also scaled up work on nature and biodiversity as was clear in the meeting the idb hosted earlier today we helped Drive reforms at the idb including a new business model for its private sector arm idb invest that includes a focus on climate and nature and biodiversity and we were proud to partner with the idb to create the America's partnership fund for nature to finance technical support for nature-based Solutions the climate funds have also been critical to work on climate and nature and biodiversity the global environment M facility to which the United States has been a leading contributor from the start has dedicated billions to conservation as one of many powerful examples and we've made great strides so that these funds better deliver for recipient countries from improvements at existing funds such as shortening approval times to operationalizing the new fund for responding to law and damage as we look ahead we'll continue to support work at the mdbs on climate and nature and biodiversity from developing outcome metrics that drive meaningful results as opposed to just dollars out the door to pioneering new models for investing in ecos systems at the climate funds we're encouraged by the action plan the funds VES are developing and by the review of an independent highlevel expert group under Brazil's G20 leadership we look forward to supporting next steps to make these funds more efficient effective and accessible to developing countries and we'll continue to insist that investments in climate and nature and biodiversity like all Investments reflect strong environmental and social safeguards and respect indigenous people's way of life and expertise I'll end by emphasizing a third key aspect of our approach which is our commitment to harness the power of markets to advance the climate transition and to capitalize on massive economic opportunities as we implement the inflation reduction act and see a boom in private sector investment in clean energy Industries across the United States American companies are also pursuing Global opportunities here in Brazil Amazon and Microsoft are making significant investments in renewable energy such as solar and wind and supporting Forest res re restoration among many other examples across the region we're focused on supporting private sector engagement through strengthening our relationships with allies and partners as the new fenda treasury partnership prioritizes crowding in more private investment to finance climate Transitions and private Capital mobilization has been part part of our agenda at the mdbs and climate funds the World Bank is designing a new securitization platform geared toward institutional investors who control trillions in assets globally and launched a new platform expected to Triple guarantee issuances to 20 billion dollar per year by 2033 enabling lower cost longer duration private financing flows the climate investment funds have developed the capital markets mechanism we've also started new initiatives in 2022 President Biden and G7 leaders launched the partnership for Global infrastructure and investment which is funded and mobilized tens of billions in Investments including including including in renewable energy access and yesterday I joined investor leadership Network Partners to announce a new Emerging Markets transition debt initiative that will increase institutional investors climate and development aligned investments in Emerging Markets we see too that harnessing the power of markets depends not just on supporting a pipeline of opportunities but on providing guidance that shapes Behavior building on our work at home on the net zero principles for financing and investment we're now working through the G20 sustainable Finance working group to develop high level principles for financial institution and corporate transition plans and follow following era principles for responsible participation in voluntary carbon markets the fenda treasury partnership will include exchanges on carbon Market Integrity principles to help strengthen these markets across the world's largest financial Market the United States and the world's carbon Sync here in the Amazon well ultimately through strengthening Rel relationships making the International Financial architecture work better for countries and harnessing the power of markets we're making progress toward tackling climate change the loss of Nature and biodiversity and related challenges we are continuously working to mitigate risk to our economy and capitalizing on new economic opportunities here in Bim as we look toward cop 30 we celebrate the progress we have made and renew our commitment to doing all we can in the months and years ahead this work is complex and it's challenging but I come away from today's engagements with the belief that we collectively have the ambition the willingness to collaborate and are developing the tool tools to secure a better future for our planet and for all our people so thank you so much for joining me today [Applause]