The Export-Import Bank of Korea (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Lee Duk-hoon, “Korea Eximbank”) announced on May 17 that it held the Climate Finance Forum as a side-event of the First High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) held in Mexico City, Mexico.

The Global Partnership, which is an international development council, was launched in June 2012 as the follow-up on the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan in 2011.

The Partnership was attended by various stakeholders including donor countries, recipient countries, parliamentarians, NGOs, and private companies to discuss ways to facilitate effective development cooperation.

The First High Level Meeting of the GPEDC was the first ministerial meeting held since the launch of the Partnership and was attended by 1300 participants from 130 countries around the world such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria, and about 100 ministers.

The Global Climate Finance Forum jointly held by Korea Eximbank, Ministry of Finance and Strategy of Korea, Ministry of Environment of Argentina, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador, the OECD, and the UNDP was one of the 35 side events of the Global Partnership Meetings.

The Forum held under the theme “Climate Finance and Development: Challenges, Priorities and Ways Forward in the Post-2015 Era” aimed at raising awareness on climate finance agenda of the development community and seeking roles for the climate finance partnership to contribute to post 2015 era.

In his keynote address, Deputy President of Korea Eximbank Nam Ki-sub said, “Climate change has direct impacts on poverty and economic growth of developing countries.” He continued to urge, “We should cooperate with the private sector to ensure the sustainable development in developing countries and actively mobilize climate finance and develop measures for its effective use.”

Since the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in 2011, Korea Eximbank has taken the lead in climate finance agenda and organized the Partnership for Climate Finance and Development in cooperation with the OECD and UNDP.

Currently, 30 countries, international organizations, civil society organizations are members of this Partnership.

With the launch of the Secretariat of Global Climate Fund in Korea in 2012, Korea Eximbank has been further encouraged to expand its activities. For example, it hosted the workshop for the 18th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP18) as well as the Global Forum on Using Country Systems to Manage Climate Change Finance in 2013 to promote the importance of climate finance agenda in the international community.