Announcement at the summit – Austria invests 1.5 billion in global climate protection

For example, the money would be used to finance the expansion of renewable energy sources or flood protection in developing countries. “Overall, Austria’s contribution to international climate protection has increased tenfold in recent years,” said the finance minister – showing how seriously the issue is taken. For climate neutrality it is important to work together, everyone must do their part: “As the Austrian federal government, we do this not only nationally by investing more than five billion euros in the coming years in the ecological transformation of our economy and creating incentives for climate-friendly action, but also internationally.”

Brunner traveled to Sharm el-Sheikh
Brunner traveled to Sharm el-Sheikh to attend meetings with Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait and Odile Renaud-Basso, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the “Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action” and discussions on participating in the theme of green finance.

The meeting of the Coalition of Finance Ministers on Climate Change – one of the key events of Finance Day at COP27 – brought together finance ministers, heads of international organizations and other senior officials to discuss how finance ministers can help their countries help adapt to the increasingly expensive impacts of climate change. The participants agreed that the effects of climate change will seriously hamper long-term economic growth if no investment is made in climate adaptation.

‘Climate protection requires capital’
In this context, the importance of improving access to adaptation finance – especially for low-income and climate-sensitive countries was also emphasized, and the role of multilateral development banks was also discussed. The need to further develop national financial systems and create new financing instruments to mobilize private financial resources was introduced here by Treasury Secretary Brunner.

“All climate protection efforts have one thing in common: they will need capital, as the focus of this year’s COP shows. There is still room for improvement, especially when it comes to mobilizing private capital and the efficiency of the resources used, as the public sector alone cannot bear the costs. This requires suitable financial instruments. As the Republic of Austria, we made great progress here last year. This year, with the issuance of the federal government’s first green bond, we took another step towards ecological financing and a few weeks ago we even issued the world’s first green Treasury Bill. The funds generated in this way are directly invested in climate-friendly projects,” concludes Brunner.

Brunner has already been criticized by Fridays For Future: “If you look at Austrian climate policy, you notice that the money is there, but for the wrong cause,” it sounds in a broadcast. The finance minister plays an important role in this, “if major reforms such as the climate protection law are in the pipeline”, he would block them.