Climate protection: strengthening others
Germany is helping countries around the world to better cope with the effects of climate change. This involves knowledge – and money. Five facts.
Investing in climate protection worldwide
Climate protection always involves money. You invest money today to prevent damage in the future that will generate much higher costs. Germany is one of the major donor countries in this area.
Germany leads the way
For example, Germany was the first country to pledge money for the Green Climate Fund. Furthermore, Germany regularly pays into the slightly smaller Adaptation Fund. Both United Nations funding mechanisms aim to help developing countries to prepare for the consequences of climate change. In addition, there are many programmes that provide funds through international cooperation, the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment and development banks.
Making developing countries less vulnerable
The goal here is to help countries affected by climate change to build greater resilience – in other words, to become better equipped for the future. Key areas are the expansion of renewable energies, above all in Africa, forest protection and also the relatively new instrument of climate risk insurance.
Rainforest wood extraction without climate damage
Forest protection is a core issue in Fiji, the actual host of the Climate Conference in Bonn. The German Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has been commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to support sustainable forestry projects. They show it is possible to harvest wood and achieve income in the rainforest without endangering the ecosystem. This can even lead to reductions in CO2 emissions. Reform proposals for national legislation are also being developed using project findings.
Insuring 400 million people against climate risks by 2020
The new instrument of climate risk insurance is attracting interest above all in Africa. It was introduced at the 2015 G7 summit in Germany. The idea: people who pay an insurance premium are compensated within a very short period of time if the country is affected by droughts, cyclones or storm surges. Compensation is provided in the form of money or practical aids such as seeds. Some 400 million people in the world’s poorest countries are to receive access to insurance of this kind by 2020. 100 million are already covered today. With a total of roughly 15 million euros, Germany is providing the major part of the G7 contribution through the KfW Development Bank. Most of the insurance sum goes to Africa.
