Climate and economic policies were discussed by the finance ministers of over 60 countries at the meeting of the coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action on Tuesday.
In its spring meeting, the coalition acquired eight new member countries, including the United States, Japan and South Korea.
The meeting was co-chaired by Finland’s Minister of Finance Matti Vanhanen and his counterparts Rodrigo Cerda from Chile and Sri Mulyani Indrawati from Indonesia.
After the meeting, the coalition will continue its work with Finland and Indonesia as chairs.
“I warmly welcome the new members of the coalition. This demonstrates the coalition’s growing role and the importance of its work in the global climate debate. Our work is based on building trust and confidence, sharing experiences and strengthening expertise and knowledge,” said Minister of Finance Vanhanen.
The most actively debated topics were the challenges of green recovery, the reforms necessitated by a carbon-neutral economy and the impacts of climate change on financial stability.
In his closing remarks, Minister Vanhanen hailed the outcome of the meeting and called on the coalition to collaborate with stakeholders and relevant organizations to assemble a set of concrete tools. The discussions of the coalition today were extremely relevant also from the perspective of the Climate Summit, to be hosted by the United States on April 22, 2021.
The coalition meeting gathered finance ministers from more than 60 countries. Participating for the first time were the new members the United States, Japan and South Korea, and the meeting was also attended by China and India that are not members of the coalition.
Among the observers were countries such as Russia and Pakistan. The meeting, which brought together the world’s largest economies, was also attended by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and China’s Minister of Finance Liu Kun.
