HANOI, March 12, 2014 – Today policymakers and climate change experts from around Southeast Asia opened a dialogue in Hanoi on how to finance low-carbon “green growth”. Government officials from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam are meeting representatives of global climate change funds, state and private banks, and businesses to discuss options for funding green investments in sectors ranging from energy and transport to agriculture and manufacturing.

“Investment in low-carbon technologies, businesses, and infrastructure are central to achieving green growth, and can simultaneously help reduce poverty, increase economic competitiveness and energy security, and reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change,” says Mr. Orestes Anastasia, Co-Chair of the Asia Low Emission Development Strategies Partnership (Asia LEDS Partnership) and a senior climate change advisor with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) regional mission in Bangkok, Thailand.

Here in Vietnam and across the region, the U.S. Government is committed to supporting climate change efforts in SE Asia, strengthening lower emissions development in the region through promotion of clean energy and sustainable landscapes,” says Joakim Parker, USAID Vietnam Mission Director . 

In response to accelerating environmental degradation and the growing threat of climate change, an increasing number of countries in Asia are beginning the transformation of their economies towards a more sustainable, low-carbon development model. Achieving green growth requires a significant shift in investment, and identifying and accessing new sources of climate change funding, as well as mainstreaming climate and environmental aspects into business financing strategies, remain key challenges for governments, businesses, and other organizations that seek to implement low-carbon strategies, plans, and projects.

“Vietnam has developed a national Green Growth Strategy to help improve people’s living standards through employment in green industries, agriculture and services, investment in natural capital, and development of green infrastructure,” says Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Trung, “and all of these investments will require funding from the government, non-State sector, and international community.”

Workshop sessions will cover a variety of financing mechanisms – from public climate investment funds to programs for small and medium sized enterprises – as well as sharing of effective models and processes to accelerate scale-up and replication of low-carbon initiatives. Topics include determining finance needs, how to incentivize private sector investment, comprehensive investment planning approaches, and monitoring and evaluation of dedicated finance to support green growth.

The workshop, titled “Accessing Finance for Green Growth and LEDS,” runs through March 14 and is organized by the Asia LEDS Partnership, in cooperation with the Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment, USAID, the SWITCH-Asia Network Facility, the World Bank, Climate and Development Knowledge Network, and United Nations Development Program.

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About the Asia LEDS Partnership

The Asia LEDS Partnership is a voluntary, regional network of Asian governments, donors, and non-governmental organizations that promotes and supports low emission development across Asia through peer-to-peer learning, knowledge sharing, and improved coordination and cooperation among partners.  LEDS are national strategic analyses and planning processes covering all economic sectors for promoting economic growth while reducing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years many Asian countries have developed LEDS as a framework to support green growth.

For more information, please visit: http://asialeds.org/                

For the agenda and speaker information, please visit: http://asialeds.org/events/ALP-climate-finance-workshop-hanoi-2014.