Financing the Just Transition

The international finance sector will play a catalytic role in the green transition. To meet the capital requirements ahead, innovation in blended finance approaches will be imperative, with private financial institutions working in partnership with governments and multilateral banks in unprecedented ways. However, at present, social and human rights factors are often seen as a risk for green investments that only adds cost and complexity, with a persistent lack of investment flowing to EMDE countries where the transition imperative includes deploying decarbonisation as a development tool.
The high-level and interactive dialogue will explore the ways in which blended capital approaches incorporate both social risks and social opportunities to serve truly just transitions locally and globally.

This dialogue is being hosted in the House of Switzerland because the Government of Switzerland considers just transitions, as recognized in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, an important crosscutting topic which is crucial for the successful implementation of climate action and limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Switzerland believes that economic sustainability and human rights are mutually dependent and interconnected. It is therefore imperative to involve the private sector, which plays a central role in shaping and delivering the transition, in discussions on the quality and pace of just transitions. The application of a human rights-centred approach by financial institutions, with the meaningful participation of those most affected, are priorities in the global just transitions agenda precisely to ensure the fastest and most efficient deployment of capital and industrial shifts.

Welcome speach

• Alexandre Fasel, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Podium speakers

• Mafalda Duarte, Executive Director, Green Finance Fund
• Rachel Kyte, former Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All, and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All
• Sharan Burrow, former Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation
• Leslie Johnston, CEO, The Laudes Foundation 

Moderation

• John Morrison, CEO, IHRB

Person for information (please note that the event is fully booked)
Andrés Zaragoza
Event liaison (IHRB)
andres.zaragoza@ihrb.org 

Please RSVP to
Rémy Friedmann 
Senior Advisor
Desk Human Security and Business
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA)
Peace and Human Rights Division
remy.friedmann@eda.admin.ch

Person for media requests
Sam Simmons
Head of Communications (IHRB)
sam.simmons@ihrb.org
+44 (0)78 953 176 57