Climate Finance: Innovative Financing Sources for Sustainable Development

The climate summit in Durban/South Africa ended this weekend with a comprehensive yet unfinished climate agreement. Yet some advances were made in the discourse about providing urgently needed financial resources to deal with climate effects in developing countries.  Financing would come from the industrialized countries and be in addition to existing commitments.  In addition, the added resources will be used to address major development, social and environmental benefits that go well beyond a narrow mitigation and adaptation focus.  With traditional donor countries' budgets severely constrained, innovative and alternative financing sources for sustainable development are gaining some momentum, inside and outside the climate negotiations context.  This panel will bring together speakers from a variety of backgrounds, including international financial institutions, governments, think tanks and civil society groups.  The panel will focus on some of the concrete financing options on the table for sustainable development that go beyond direct public contributions by developed countries.  These varied proposals include taxes and levies on air and maritime transport, special drawing rights and financial transaction taxes.    
 
Introduction
John Sewell, Senior Scholar, Environmental Change and Security Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 
 
Discussants
Beth Urbanas, Deputy Director, Office of Environment & Energy, U.S. Treasury (invited)
Ari Huhtala, Senior Environmental Specialist, Climate Change Team,  Environment Department, World Bank  
Ian Parry, Technical Assistance Advisor (Climate Change and Environment), Tax Policy, Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund  
Liane Schalatek, Associate Director, Heinrich Böll Stiftung - North America  
David Waskow, Climate Change Program Manager, Oxfam America 
 
RSVP required:  jbaker@new-rules.org 
  
Sponsors: New Rules for Global Finance, Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America, and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.