UN in China Co-Hosts Side Event on Strengthening Climate Finance Capacity at the 12th APFSD

The event brought together climate finance leaders, experts from international organizations, and key stakeholders to discuss challenges in accessing climate finance, strategies for capacity building, and innovative solutions to enhance financial flows for climate action across the region. Discussions focused on overcoming barriers faced by developing countries, targeted capacity-building approaches, and best practices to leverage financial mechanisms for climate resilience.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Siddharth Chatterjee, UN Resident Coordinator in China, emphasized the critical need for enhanced financial mechanisms to address climate challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. He said that countries and institutions “must seize these opportunities to drive systemic changes that scale up, enhance, and broaden the inclusivity of climate finance, while ensuring that countries have the institutional capacity to effectively implement mitigation and adaptation projects and policies.”

As part of the opening session, His Excellency Mr. Ye Xuenong, Permanent Representative of China to UNESCAP emphasized the need for sustainable development solutions to address climate challenges and support climate action in the Asia-Pacific region. He stated that “Energy transition is one of the important paths to the fundamental transformation of development models, which are required to address climate change. Asia, as the major driver of global economic growth, and the key region for global energy transition, will be consuming half of the world’s electricity this year. The challenges of energy transition facing Asia-Pacific are particularly prominent.” 

The event took place against the backdrop of escalating climate challenges in the region, which require sustained financing to support mitigation and adaptation efforts. Despite steady growth in climate finance, significant gaps remain, including disparities in distribution and the capacity of local governments to effectively mobilize and manage these resources.

Addressing policy and capacity barriers to inclusive climate finance, Ms. Anastasia Maga, Research Fellow at SEI said, “Various stakeholders identified limited capacity, particularly among policymakers at the local level, as a significant challenge. This is especially relevant given the emphasis on locally led adaptation.”

Mr. Cheng Lin, Director of the Center for International Collaboration at the Institute of Finance and Sustainability, shared his insights on incentives, stating, “Incentives may not always be possible in certain countries and jurisdictions, including those involving central banks, non-central banks, regulators, and other common agencies. Therefore, we need to innovate ways to transform and interpret incentives into something that truly matters to clients.”

Discussing risks and opportunities along the carbon value chain in the Asia-Pacific, Ms. Hitomi Rankine, Chief of the Environment and Development Policy Section at UNESCAP, emphasized the importance of targeted capacity-building efforts to address specific risks. She stated that “When we talk about adaptation, governments need to be able to articulate how specific ecosystem services contribute to their national development goals.” 

The session concluded with an interactive Q&A, moderated by Mr. Stefan Boessner, Policy Lead and Research Fellow at SEI, which addressed key concerns surrounding the balance between green subsidies and tariffs measures, and the roles of the private sector and financial institutions.

This side event reinforced the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in strengthening climate finance capacity across Asia and the Pacific, advancing regional efforts toward a sustainable and climate-resilient future.