 My name is Angelique Poupounault and I'm from the Seychelles, first and foremost an islander and the CEO of the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust. So my day-to-day job really involves financing projects in the Seychelles for adaptation. So coming from an island that is urgently in need of adaptation finance and after a long day of negotiations it's fitting to end my day this way, being surrounded by countries showing leadership. Just to note and I thank everyone for being here at the end of this day that this is a virtual, this is a hybrid event with both an audience and a virtual event. We would like to thank the resilience hub and the high-level champions for hosting the event space. We would like to thank E3G and the International Institute for Environment and Development for supporting the event. So I'm going through my thank yous and thank the members of the champions group on adaptation finance for really prioritizing this event at COP26 to bring greater awareness and attention to adaptation finance and I'm going to tell you why, especially coming from a small island developing state. It's always one thing to say that climate finance is available, it's something completely different to say that it is accessible and that is critical, especially when you come from a small island developing state, 90, 95,000 people and guess what? You're characterized as a high-income country. And all of a sudden the access to concessionary finance is no longer available, let alone grants. It completely ignores our vulnerabilities and of course the inequity of actually having to fund adaptation efforts on such a small population. The burden is heavier on each person because there are so few of us. It's no longer a 50 million US dollar port divided by a larger population in terms of burden, but it's only on 90,000 people. So you can just imagine why this is so important for us and why climate adaptation finance needs to really be present and available and accessible to all countries and in particular and of course I would say this, small island developing states. So we need to ensure that there is quantity, we need to ensure that there is quality, we need to be ensuring that the finance is actually delivering impact on the ground. It's responding to the needs of the people on the ground. We know that adaptation efforts are often very much linked to these very specific national contexts. But with all of that in mind, today, and this started back in Anga, the United General Assembly, we feel heard. The thing that we've been talking about, emphasizing the importance of this, finally a group of champions makes us feel heard. So with that, I'd love to begin our event with the first panel. There's going to be two panels with ministers or their representative sharing statements. So we will begin with the first panel. And I'd like to invite Minister Coen Brofie of Ireland, Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and diaspora. I understand he will be joining us virtually. I hope that's all set up tech team. We're good to go. And the question for him is, tell us about the Champions Group on Adaptation Finance. What support have you been hearing from other climate finance providers? Thank you. Thank you very much. Hopefully you are hearing me loud and clear. I'm delighted to be joining you this evening. I'm particularly glad to welcome new members to the Champions Group on adaptation and to have the opportunity to explain to other finance providers as well as developing countries, civil society and other stakeholders present our aims, ambitions and objectives. For those who do not know, we launched the Champions Group on adaptation as part of the UN General Assembly and Climate Week in New York in September 2021. We know that individual country investments in adaptation are insufficient. The estimated adaptation costs in developing countries are five to 10 times greater than current public adaptation finance flows. And indeed, that gap is widening. The aim of this group is to increase the total share of climate finance spend on adaptation and resilience, particularly for LDCs and SIDSs. Now, we will need by example in committing to a balanced approach in our own public climate finance. We will advocate for improved quality and accessibility of adaptation finance and we encourage other finance providers to join us in these efforts. Adaptation to finance currently makes up less than 20% of total climate finance. Now, at the event in September, there was agreement that we need to dramatically increase both the volume and the share of this support. We discussed the gendered impacts of climate change and the need for a stronger voice for women in decision making at all levels. There was particular mention of the existential threat faced by the small island developing states and there were calls for climate finance to be based on vulnerability to climate change and not just on GDP. I'm delighted to report that earlier this week that he shook our Prime Minister announced that Ireland will more than double our climate finance by 2025. Others have also made strong commitments. But we must ensure that every cent of this increased finance is being used effectively and efficiently in addressing the vulnerabilities of those most in need. Quality adaptation action means looking beyond assessing greenhouse gas reductions and finance flows. We need to measure the impact on the ground on how adaptation action helps communities to cope with their changing environments. Since that launch in September, the Champions Group on adaptation has been active in reaching out to partners at all levels, including multinational development banks. We held calls with the Africa Group, where we discussed capacity issues that inhibit access to finance, as well as issues that prevent capital moving to the local level. We've also taken on board recommendations from other groups, such as the call to action from the round table processes on SIDS and access to finance. This group is growing and the message on adaptation is being heard. I look forward to hearing from all present here on both the challenges and the priorities for how we bring forward more action on adaptation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister and music to my ears. I have to say, we've heard the statistics, and it's such great news to hear that we really need to be focusing on vulnerability, rather than GDP. And of course, that, you know, and I think that's really important, the fact that we need to think about having women in leadership, and the gendered impacts with regards to climate. But also, it was great to hear that we're not just focused on key performance indicators like amount dispersed. We're really thinking about impact on the ground. And I think with that, you know, it's really important to also consider how the people on the ground are also participating in co designing and thinking through how finance is being effectively, as you said, and efficiently used on the ground. So I think now every most of our panelists are going to be are going to be in person. I believe Ambassador Webson will be joining us very shortly from from meiosis. But in the interim, I will call upon and very much to join us on on the stage. One at a time, but then invited to stay. Mr. Tom de Bruin, Minister for trade for foreign trade and development cooperation from the Kingdom of Netherlands. And please. And the question to you, Minister is, what have you heard from your engagements with LDCs and SIDS on the priorities for the adaptation finance? Thank you very much for organizing this meeting. And coming from a country where half of the country is below sea level. We know something about adaptation. So we understand the needs of the developing countries. And what they actually asked for is just what you said at the beginning, quantity, quality and accessibility. And on quantity. It is absolutely imperative that we follow the request of the UN Secretary General's call that we spend half of climate funds to adaptation. Actually, the Netherlands public contribution to climate financing is two thirds for adaptation. Again, because we know what it is. And I have the pleasure to make on money some announcements because we will give new contributions, 20 million euros to NDC partnership, an additional 75 million to CGIR and an additional 25 million to the LDC fund. So that will be our additional contribution to climate financing. Now on quality, I fully agree with what you said in the beginning that we should look at the needs based contributions. That is really important. On accessibility, we should make sure that funds become available, for example, for women, but also for local communities. That's really something that we value very much. And that's where I would like to end my contribution. Thank you again. Thank you very much, Minister. And it's amazing what you can do when both everybody understands. And it's good to hear from Netherlands that you understand as much as we do the importance of adaptation. Two thirds of your funding is for adaptation. And I think you're right. Women, local communities, indigenous people, and really marginalized group must not be left behind in this need to adapt to the impacts of climate change. So now I'm going to welcome Ambassador Webson, the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. So definitely Seychelles' chair in all of this. Ambassador Webson is Ambassador Extraordinaire and Plenty Potentiary Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations. Ambassador Webson, question to you is, what are the challenges, forces that needs to be addressed, and what solutions are you calling for? Thank you, Ambassador. Thank you so much, Angelique. It's always a pleasure to be with you. And how much I admire your enthusiasm as you bring your youthful exuberance to these types of discussions and doing it so well for so long. It's a pleasure. Friends, colleagues, I want to thank the champions for inviting AOSIS to be part of this discussion. It is particularly important to hear from those who are struggling, suffering most. I wanted to just spend a little time on a few things, a little bit on resilience and to explain how we are dealing with it and how we feel a little bit on finance and to mention discuss the question of development finance and climate finance. You see, enhancing resilience for us as small states is of great importance. It's something that we take serious and it's something that we both at the human resource level as much as what the level of finding support and funding we take and move forward because we are a resilient people as island people. It is keep fighting resilience and building resilience is key to our sustainability. If not, we would lose the hard work gains that we have earned over years in our development. We are exposed to global shocks as much as we are exposed to climate change. As you know, in the last two years or year and a half, we have all been fighting the pandemic and we as small island states have had that double shock where we have been fighting the pandemic while at the same time climate change doesn't stop to say let's give them a break. We are still fighting climate change. While we were struggling to mobilize health resources and human humanitarian resources, we at the same time had to fight because many of our island nations were hit by the hurricane season. Hurricane season is an annual occurrence just as Christmas comes or carnival in our culture, hurricane comes and we have to prepare. However, the criteria, however, we are still struggling to find criteria for the financial institutions and the large countries to understand that states or small island developing states require special circumstances to deal with our unique vulnerabilities. We have as you know put on the table for many years, over 30 years, and now we are seeming to get some traction and certainly the discussion on building a vulnerability index to assist small states who have special circumstantial needs is now finally look like we can be making ground. I say that because we have support from the Secretary General of the United Nations and we have support going through the United Nations itself. We need public financing for adaptation. It continues to be effective. Adaptation, as you know, is the most significant aspect and we are hoping that coming out of COP we can see equal resources put for adaptation and mitigation. That for us is critical. At the same time, we are also looking at the issue of loss and damage because our countries are saddled with the burden whenever we are hit to borrow money to rebuild. Most of our island nations, as it was put to me, most of our island nations, if sea level rise doesn't drown us, then we will we will drown in debt because in order for us to rebuild, which has become now an annual occurrence, we have to borrow and we have therefore not just a crisis of climate disaster, but we have a fiscal crisis of debt. To this end, we are working with the United Nations system to build a multi vulnerability index. We are seeking the support from the international community to get this index in place so that when we are when the island nations are hit by disaster, this can be one of the mechanisms used and not just GDP to allow for concessional financing, grant financing, debt relief. As we even as we attempt to couple these with innovative financial instruments such as debt swaps, which the small states have begun to showing the way as to how we can use this. Having said that, as the resilient people, we will continue to work towards putting our own national resources into innovation into adaptation and we will continue to build partnerships. We will continue to build regional and inter-regional partnerships, which we hope will attract private corporations and private companies to work with the islands of the small states of AOSIS. I want to stop there and I can go on, but I want to stop there and hopefully we will have an opportunity to have a little bit of a question and answer discussion, but the alliance of small island states want to appreciate the work that being done by the champions and to assure you of our cooperation and to assure you that we who feels it most need you most. I thank you. Thank you very much, Ambassador. A lot to reflect there, but just a couple of points that I'll point to. It's great to see the champions come forward. I think it's important to think about grants versus debts and thinking about how these financing arrangements are structured. There's a lot to think about and as I said, you know, one, I want to believe in co-designing really the providers and the recipients and really entering inequitable partnerships, but also I have to say this as somebody who manages proceeds of a debt for nature swap, another element where having private actors be involved, leveraging public funds to attract philanthropy, to attract impact investors is also another very interesting avenue that is worth exploring and I know many small states are keen to explore those. So we'll move to our next speaker and I know it's sort of coming up front and going back to sit down, so I won't stop that momentum, so we'll continue that way. The next speaker is from Denmark, Mr. Fleming Moller Mortensen, the Minister of Development Cooperation and from Denmark, our question to you is what has Denmark discovered about implementing its pledge on adaptation finance? So a little bit of lessons learned and sharing from Denmark, please. Thank you very much and I have to start to say it's really a pleasure being here and that many people gathering here is really great. Climate change is defining the challenge of our time. I think we all agree about that and climate change adaptation is a necessity. The people hardest to hit have the fewest resources to adapt to the consequences and at the same time only one in four US dollars for climate finance goes to adaptation. We need a much better balance. The champion group is a group of donor countries that will walk the talk and lead by example. I believe this is the most credible way to lead and build trust and address the needs on the ground and I'm really happy to see that more colleagues are joining us in this important call. Maybe that's the reason why we have so many people here today. In addition to scaling up adaptation finance we also need to address the quality of finance as well as the access to finance for developing countries and not least the least developed countries and small island developing states as we just heard about now. This includes our commitment to help avert, minimize and address climate induced loss and damage. The Danish government is stepping up. We will increase our grant-based financing for climate action to at least 500 million US dollars annually from 2023 and we will dedicate at least 60 percent to climate adaptation. I think the same as the Dutch. We must step up efforts to assist people in the frontline of devastating weather events. This is also a cornerstone in the principles for locally led adaptation that Denmark has joined just before coming to Glasgow. Let us continue to join forces to put these people in the center of our efforts. I really hope we will and I think that when we see more people coming too that's the way we will move. Thank you very much. Thank you very much Minister and very much walking the talk and the fact that you mentioned loss and damage we, Ambassador Webster and Claxton and I were all smiling. You can see behind the mask what you saw my smile. So our next speaker is from the United Kingdom. Vel Genendron, the Climate and Environment Director from the UK. So COP Presidency I suppose. Are we making progress? It's been a week. Well it's been quite a long time actually. It's been a few it's been many years. In the President's view what more needs to be done. Thank you Angelique and thanks to colleagues for organizing this event. I always think when you hear the testimony that we heard from Ambassador Webster, it really reminds you why this conversation is so important and I'm so glad we're having it. I'm so glad there's a group of us that are really championing this issue. Have we made progress? Absolutely I think we have. You know over the last year we've had all of the G7 countries announced not only increases in climate finance but within that increases in adaptation share. It's not just the G7. We've seen that from other donors. We've seen it from the the multilateral development banks. So I think that's really you know that is definitely progress. Is it enough? Absolutely not. We know that the share started from a very low baseline. It was 20 billion I think in 2019. So only 25 percent of climate finance that year. So that's too low. It needs to be higher. That's why this group of champions was formed to try and encourage others to do more. I do want to say one thing which is this shouldn't be an either or between mitigation and adaptation. We need to grow the overall envelope and within that we need more adaptation. So you can't I don't want this to be a conversation about reducing mitigation in order to increase adaptation. Both need to grow. So that was one point. In terms of progress as well I mean we've heard a bit about it not just being public finance. We do need to see more private finance. We need to see more financial innovation. We're seeing some of that. The nature swaps and some of the DFIs the development finance institutions have launched a collaborative to try and increase private sector funding for adaptation. That's very early stages but just the fact that those organizations are convening to try and draw in more private finance is progress. But again we need to see more. And just the last thing on the finance side. So briefly I want to touch on quality as well. Is that there's also a system issue here. How do you integrate physical climate risk into all financial decisions. So how does our decision to invest in a road. How do we integrate the physical climate risk of that. And we heard earlier in lots of different sessions that we're seeing progress on those physical climate risk metrics and how we're integrating those in. So again early stages and we're seeing progress but more needs to be done. And I just wanted to highlight those areas the public. Progress more to done private and then the system. And then just very briefly if I could on quality. Because I think one of our colleagues mentioned it. Again I do think there's progress but I think this conversation needs to be more than the funds. It tends to be you know it takes too long and it's too bureaucratic to get money out of the funds. I think that is an important conversation. But it needs to be more than that. It needs to be how do we get behind urgent climate action at a national level at scale. And supporting governments. So that's the first thing. Let's think about the system. And we heard earlier today from the chair of the OECD development assistance committee about how we need to integrate development and climate adaptation. Just on the quality I think others have talked about locally led adaptation. Only 10 percent of adaptation finance reaches local levels. There's been a lot of conversations about the importance of locally led adaptation. And I just think that needs to be a key part of the debate going forward. And then the last part is the amount that flows to SIDS in LDCs in Africa. Which we know is too low. Not enough adaptation finance flows to the countries that most need it. And that also needs to be a key part of our agenda. So I guess when you wrap all of that together yes we have seen progress. Does that mean the job is done absolutely not. That's why this group of champions is so important because we need to keep pushing this agenda and both as the UK and as the president we will continue to keep prioritizing and supporting all of that. Thank you very thank you very much. And I think we're completely aligned and on the same page on all those issues. So glad to hear that we're not talking about taking away finance from mitigation. This is additional finance and being channeled towards adaptation. And I completely agree with you. It's not just about there are few things right. It's not just about the funding being available. There's a lot of thought leadership that is going on in different institutions and countries. Some countries piloting these little innovations hoping that we go to scale and a lot of thought leadership about M.D.B.s and banks now thinking about how are they including risk in their decisions. So absolutely where we're completely aligned and on the same page on on this in terms of yes this progress. I know there's a lot of thought leadership a lot of thinking we've got the champions group now but more needs to be done. More countries need to join this champions group. So we're going to turn to our second panel and I think we're going to have to keep it the same format in terms of calling each one up. But the next panel will be hearing from another group of countries very much looking at what are the next steps to unlock progress on adaptation finance post COP 26. So really the what next question. And and of course right we we're going to leave here we don't want the political momentum to stop and we know that's often what happens where all building up to an event then the event ends. We all go home. What we don't want is not no more business as usual. Right. So for for to kick us off on this next next panel we're going to invite our our the minister from from Sweden Mr. And I really apologize if I'm butchering all of your names. I'm terribly sorry if it makes you feel any better. Everyone butchers mine. So Mr. Per Olsen Fridt of the Minister for International Development Cooperation from Sweden. And my question to you is what will the champions group on adaptation finance do next. We're excited. The momentum has started. What's next. That's it. Someone switched it off. That was it. Well thank you very much for inviting me up here and for this introduction. And I think I do think when I listen to all of the panelists here I think we also need to reconsider who we call champions here because I think the real champions are the people that shows incredible resilience and make livelihoods and living in these conditions that we've created putting our planet on a fever. And I think this COP is all about ambitions right. We're coming here to improve and come with greater ambitions. We raised the level, we raised the bar. What happens after this COP is that we need to move from ambition to accountability. And there's no promises that will save this planet or our livelihoods but only us living up to those promises. And I think that is what this champions group on adaptation is all about. A group of countries that feel the responsibility to show the way on adaptation financing. And one of our priorities is of course to raise the overall financing that goes to adaptation and we've heard some about that before. Sweden has risen to this challenge by announcing that we will double our climate financing to 2025. And roughly half of this will go into adaptation in line with partner countries' needs and priorities. But equally important we have to make sure that adaptation financing is readily also available to partner countries, to communities, to the most vulnerable people and communities that is in the need of this financing. And we know that this is not the case today. We are channeling a lot of adaptation financing to protect our trade routes, not to protect the most vulnerable communities and that has to change. So moving forward beyond COP26, we will continue our engagement and collaboration with climate vulnerable countries of course to build shared priorities, collaborate on actions to even out old relationships and build mutual partnerships and the way forward to champion adaptation finance solutions. I'd like to highlight a few things that would be crucial for us in that work. And one, firstly as donors, we need to ensure long-term adaptation finance. And this is necessary to create the predictability that is needed for us to engage in adaptation and to deal with adaptation. So Sweden provides multi-annual support to most of the big climate funds, to the adaptation fund, to the fund for the least developed countries. And I do encourage other donors to do the same. Because with multi-annual and non-airmarked support, we create the conditions that you can predict and you can work long-term and you can also put the resources where the biggest needs are. Secondly of course we need to continue to build capacity, nationally, locally. But let's not fool ourselves to think that we can come with capacity. The capacity is there. The knowledge is there. And we need to use that bottom-up approach to start from the communities that are vulnerable, use the knowledge, use the force and resources that they are, and then build from there. And I think that is an important key. And thirdly of course we need to make sure that this type of financing also finds its way through national budgeting, national plans and so on of course. And we can support that from the champions group, planning processes and so on. So our ambition is that we can jointly deliver on all of this to the COP 27. And that we can stand as partners with results by COP 27. And halfway through this COP and the next COP, we will also host the Stockholm plus 50 conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ever-first UN conference on the human environment that was held in Stockholm in 1972. And perhaps we can use Stockholm plus 50 also as a stock taker on the work that we do so. And I would love the champions group and adaptation countries to join us in that, in June next year, an opportunity to further promote this agenda together. So to end I just want to say that I'm very particularly happy to also announce that new partners are joining the champions group today. New Zealand, Australia, Italy, African Development Bank, you're most welcome. Thank you for joining us. We need more voices, more resources and more policy pushing this agenda the right way. Together partnership is leadership and then we can actually make a change and increase the support from the world community to the most vulnerable people, to the most vulnerable communities and create that adaptation that we desperately need. Thank you very much. Thank you. So first off I'll see you in Stockholm. I'll be there. Secondly, I really want to, I really like to give me an idea as you were speaking. I wonder who in these halls are tracking all the political announcement being made. Who's actually tracking it and who, how are we finding ways to hold everyone who made these announcements in these very nice side event halls and making sure that they're delivering on their promises. And I challenge the young people in this room to let's have a climate accountability advocates. Let's keep that accountability there. I think you're absolutely right that that needs to happen. And when it comes to capacity and long-term adaptation financing, I couldn't agree more. As someone who runs a trust fund, love the whole idea of a multi-annual funding helps us plan and also the part about capacity is so important. We often make the mistake of parachuting capacity in. And it's no surprise when it doesn't last for very long because it's not sustainable and the people don't have the ownership. Many of the solutions are there in these countries and in the minds of the people in those countries. Ambassador Webster is here. We spent some time last week looking at SID solutions for SIDs. There are many small islands coming up with solutions that can be very valuable and can be adopted by other small islands as well. But we'll move to our next speaker, someone who I visited his country and had a lovely time. I must say and no, I'm not going to say it. I might offend people, but your people are one of the most amazing people I've ever visited. His Excellency LaMaine Diba, the Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources from the Government of the Gambia. Minister, what are your priorities for addressing some of these issues on the road to COP 27? We want to hear the priorities from the Gambia and least developed countries. Yes, it is. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I think this is a great opportunity for us to share with you our priorities from the other side of the coin. I have seen that the champions here have made some commitments, but I really like the Swedes. As developing countries, we have challenges, but those challenges, we have solutions within ourselves, but we really need access to resources, technology, capacity and so on. But to start with your Excellencies, I would like to join the Aeosis and Malawi to welcome the champions, the adaptation champions. This is something that we look forward to. As we all know, Gambia is the only country in the whole world that has an NDC that is 1.5 degrees Celsius compliant. And here we have clearly set our priorities in that NDC. And as a developing country, as a least developed country, I have just highlighted few of the issues. One is access, unfettered access to resources that is financial support for adaptation. And here I like your approach of going down to the people because that is where vulnerabilities are. That is where we need to enhance the resilience of these vulnerable groups and communities that suffered from the impact of climate change on their lives and livelihoods. So it is important that when we are designing these mechanisms, we need to take into consideration how do we reach out to those people. From the OECD report only 10% of these resources is reaching to the grassroots. That is the people. And we need to change that paradigm. And we cannot change that paradigm without the support of you, the champions. And therefore and all other mechanisms, either the 100 billion is here or it is not here before 2025. But as I said, we need these funds yesterday, not even today. These resources, all the people from the small island states have talked about the vulnerability from small island states. But us in the Sahel, being in the Sahel itself is a vulnerability. We are at risk in the Sahel. So people's livelihoods are at risk every day. People are losing lives. People are losing livelihoods. How do we remedy this is to enhance our adaptive capacities at local level and at national level. This is a priority. One, we all know the Gambia 75% of our population is engaged in agriculture. And agriculture is one sector which is very sensitive to climate change, but also a contributor to climate change. If you look at our NDC, you will see that agriculture is a priority. Our method of production. How do we employ the power of science, technology and innovation to change our method of production so that the people who depend on this sector can produce and enhance their productivity, but also enhance the value chain. We also looking at our energy sector, which will enable us to achieve our NDC within the targeted time frame by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 49%. This is what we charge ourselves in the NDC. But we also looking at our waste disposal, which is also contributing to greenhouse gas. So what technology is available from the global north to support us to ensure that we have, we do not only have waste management system, but a landfill that can enable us to manage, generate and manage these waste into a more responsible and responsive climate change. The other aspect that is very significant in our priorities is resilience building. But the crux of the matter is how do we access resources and get it down to the people. So these are our priorities. On behalf of my government, I would want to thank the champion group for inviting the Gambia to share our thoughts and also our priorities, which is very important for us. But one plea I have is that we are all together in this. And it is important that the global north also enhance their ambition. Because if not, what would happen, the small island states, the developed countries, with all these nice plants that we have, with all the activities that we have, it will all be negated by the non-action of the global north. So I think it is important for all of us to ensure that we have an ambition that is responsive to 1.5 degrees, not in less. On that, I thank you all for your kindness. Thank you, minister. I think you have summed it up well. We are all in this together. So we all need to take action, ambition, finance, adaptation, and building resilience. I am very conscious of time. And it is such important conversations, I don't want to cut anybody off. But we will try to stick to the allocated time as much as possible. The next speaker is from Germany, Dr. Juge Zatler, the director general. Yes, please join us up on stage. And our question to you is, what can the members of the champions group do to help address the issue highlighted in the 100 billion delivery plan that more work needs to be done to increase adaptation finance, which still lags behind finance for mitigation? Interesting question. Yes, I start with the quantity and the 100 million. I mean, we know there is a problem. Our state secretary in our ministry for environment has looked at that with the Canadian government. And they have come up with a roadmap and we are now quite confident that we will overperform in the next year and achieve this goal. I mean, promises and please follow up. Yes, not only the young ones, the youth, but also the old ones, everyone. So this is about the quantity of climate finance, but then we have the issue of adaptation finance. And I think it's quite obvious that we have a problem here, that the adaptation needs are really increasing or high and the share is too low. So I would invite everybody, as the ambassador also did, he referred to youthful exuberance. I think that's what we need. Exuberance, youthful or not, we have to get this figure up, more adaptation financing. And our youthful chancellor, Angela Merkel, she has announced only recently that Germany will increase its climate financing from four billion to six billion in 2025. And also we will increase the share of our adaptation finance. We want to see a balance between adaptation and mitigation finance. That's another commitment. Please track. And then with regard to the question, it's more on quality. I think my colleague from the UK said, no, either or, grow the pie. That's right. But we can also look at another issue. It's where adaptation and mitigation finance is perhaps overlapping. For example, nature-based solutions circulate economy offers really possibilities to do both adaptation and mitigation. And again, with regard to adaptation finance, I would like to make another, it's not an announcement, but just to remind you that we increased Germany, our commitments to the least developed country fund in this year by another 100 million to now 415 million euro. Again, please, please track. And perhaps the last point, access to perhaps another issue with regard to the quality. Because I think the issue of debt has been raised. I think that's a very important thing. We have to try to provide this adaptation finance in concessional and highly concessional form in particular for countries with high debt. I think that's an important issue. And if possible, we have to provide it in prearranged form because this makes it quicker. And therefore, for example, as you know, we are initiated our insuricilians partnership where we try to increase funding which is prearranged. And a last point on the access to finance issue, I think that's really the difficult one. Usually elderly men, they always have answers. I do not have with regard to this issue. But what I can say is Germany will join the task force to access to climate finance. And if you don't have an answer, at least you have a process and we are committed to that. Thanks. Thank you very much. We will follow up and I feel that we get really good answers when we get the elderly white men with lots of other people together and we discuss and come up with solutions together. So I hope this task force is well constituted with lots of representative and I'm sure we're going to get the answer to access to finance. So moving on swiftly to Minister of Environment and Climate Change from Finland, Ms Krista Mikonen. Minister, our question for you is how will the champions group continue to engage with SIDS and LDCs on this agenda? So we're listening very keenly. We've heard SIDS. Thank you. Thank you. Well, first of all, I'd like to start telling you that Finland is also strongly scaling up climate finance for the developing country partners. During this government term, we have increased it by 80 percent and we have also heard the calls for more emphasis on adaptation finance and we are striving towards an even better balance. Well, we are very inspired by the work of the champions group. Improving the quality of and access to adaptation finance are very important targets and of course in addition to increasing funding as well. I believe we need increased understanding of risks, adaptation needs and available solutions in order to successfully enhance resilience. I also have a pleasure to welcome the champions group to Finland, to city of Lahti, which is actually the green capital of Europe this year, just in five weeks. The aim is to discuss priorities into COP 27 with least developed countries and small island development states. I hope there we will find more answers. It will also be an opportunity for action with the coalition of finance ministers for climate action, which is co-chaired by Finland and Indonesia. The Lahti meeting will kick off a wider set of the dialogues on adaptation finance during 2022, organized by the champions group member countries. In the coming year we need to build support for scaling up global adaptation finance and commit to a balance approach in public climate finance as well as improve transparency of reporting. We will also reach out to other climate finance providers to welcome new members to join the effort. I hope we can have many of you and others in Lahti, either in person or virtually. Thank you. Thank you very much, minister. I hope your call is heard and more countries join. In fact, when the group was launched back at UNGA, I believe it was September, it was a small group, a small group of ambitious countries though. I remember the launch and I was sitting in the Seychelles. I was very excited. That was in September and we're only two months later and I hear there's new members. It's really fantastic to see that new members are committing to the objectives of the champions group. I'm going to give an opportunity for the new members to all three come on stage, representatives from New Zealand, Australia and the African Development Bank if we can join us on stage. Okay, so seems our colleagues from the African Development Bank have not been able to make it but I'm sure we'll get an update from them later on. So the questions for our new champions, why have you decided to join the champions group and what are your priorities for supporting a better balance for and access to adaptation finance moving forward? We'll start with let's go out for medical order. We'll start with Australia. I am not as Pilled Ambassador Jamie S Mr our head of delegation who unfortunately has been called away to consultations. My name is Peter Elder and despite the Scottish accent I am indeed the director of our COP delegation this year and I'm very honoured and delighted to be on the stage today to join fellow champions as a new member and the one thing that Australia has been particularly inspired by is the ambition of the group and this is a group that leads by example and Australia is very keen to sign up to that. Of course focusing on adaptation and resilience is a key part of Australia's development program and in fact over the period of the first commitment period of 2015 to 2020 over 70% of our climate finance is invested in adaptation and resilience building activities. Earlier in COP last week our Prime Minister announced a doubling of our climate finance meeting a high ambition goal and we certainly expect that we will maintain a strong proportion an above balanced proportion of that finance for adaptation. Our development assistance is very focused on our region as members of the Pacific family the Pacific small island developing states and around 700 million dollars of our two billion we anticipate will go to climate finance in the Pacific over 2020 to 2025. We believe that we have something to offer the champions group we have learned by partnership and experience quite a bit about deploying adaptation finance and the needs of their Pacific small island developing states but also our Southeast Asian developing country partners as well. And one thing noting this is a can do group and not just a rhetorical group is we come with an offer and Australia proposes to lead some work drawing on the experience and the data that the champions group has to prepare a qualitative paper on the state of play on the effectiveness of adaptation finance in time for COP next year when we meet again in Sharma shake. We've heard a lot in the previous speakers about the quality of adaptation finance and about the sustainability challenge and our report we propose will bring forward recommendations to improve the quality of adaptation finance and to give the champions group some added momentum going into next year's adaptation COP. So with that again Australia is proud to join the champions group and looks very much forward to working with our fellow members. Thank you. Thank you very much Ambassador. And over to me and I cannot claim to be Ambassador Kay Harrison either. But my name is Chris Carson from the New Zealand delegation and I'm delighted to be here representing New Zealand today. The question I think was why did we join well for us a key driver is because adaptation is just so important for our Pacific neighbors and climate change is already reversing some of the development outcomes in the Pacific which was a point that Ambassador Webson made earlier on as well. Even so adaptation finance is currently grossly grossly underfunded and imbalanced with I believe only around 20 percent of the finance going to adaptation. We joined because of the need to collectively encourage parties to do more to support the scaling up of adaptation finance and to get a better balance across the different finance streams. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much and I will say welcome to the group since I was there at the launch I feel part of the group sort of so your trusted friend. So welcome to the group and thank you very much. Our final speaker to provide us with some closing remarks is Mr. Selwyn Hart a special advisor to the secretary general on climate action and assistant secretary general for the climate action team. Mr. Hart a question for you is what are you hearing about the key priorities that the champions group and other climate finance providers could address. Thank you so much capacity building but it's a pleasure to be here and what have we been hearing one of the inconvenient truths of the global response to the climate crisis is that adaptation and resilience remains the neglected half of the climate equation. After close to 30 years of international climate negotiations adaptation finance remains a mere 25% of total climate finance 25%. Despite what we're seeing across the world in every continent on every continent in every region and in every country escalating impact despite what was promised in the Paris agreement to balance adaptation and resilience finance it still remains a mere 25% that is not balance that is not balance and when you look deeper at the numbers this 25% represents about 20 billion and the estimated cost of adaptation to the developing world will rise to as much as $300 billion a year by 2030. This is outrageous I've said this before and it's unacceptable so first and foremost we have to significantly scale up climate finance and this is why the secretary general has been making this clarion call for the last year or so called to donors and the MDBs to increase their climate finance to at least 50% of total climate finance and we thank the Netherlands Denmark and Sweden that have responded positively. Now champions you need to step up you need to step up you just can't call yourself a champion and not respond to this. Secondly is the issue of access many of you have heard the concerns of the developing countries especially those on the front lines of the climate crisis. In 2019 adaptation climate finance declined by 25% for the small island developing states. SIDS in 2019 received 1.8% of total climate finance flows and these are countries on the front lines of the climate crisis or recognizing that knowledge is being vulnerable and the first to be impacted in every decision and resolution on climate finance has been adopted as part of this convention. So we need to do better we need to do better on the access question the tools the instruments they're all there and I heard someone say what do we need to do I have three recommendations for you to champion as champions in the places that matter. First reduce the red tape the red tape and bureaucracy is a massive challenge to SIDS LDCs African countries vulnerable countries who need this finance more. So we need you to champion a reduction of red tape and bureaucracy on the boards of the MDBs in the GCF in the Jeff these are the places where we need you to champion the reduction of the red tape. Secondly capacity building. Yes these countries are usually small or poor countries and they need capacity building support to prepare and execute and implement project. Badly needed capacity building support across every single SIDS region. And the third third priority the eligibility criteria and the thresholds that are used to grant access to climate finance and development support in general. These per capita income being used as the sole measure on fares we know the rationale but it significantly undermines the ability of vulnerable developing countries primarily the small island developing states and middle income developing countries who need adaptation support. So we need you as champions to champion this issue in the OECD on the boards of the MDBs and other places where these rules are unfairly applied. So increasing the volume and solving the access issues this is what we've been hearing we have a unique moment at COP26 to make a dent to make a dent and send the right political signals that we're seeing a sea change in how adaptation issues are dealt with. So as champions I really encourage you I thank all of you for joining this group it has been an amazing and marvelous experience working with all of you but our work does not and will not and must not end in Glasgow. We need to take it through COP27 through COP28 every day every hour every minute because when you look at what is happening in the vulnerable developing countries when you look at what is happening in the developing world when you look at what is happening in your own countries we must all recognize that this is a race that we cannot afford to lose. So thank you champions you have our support we will work with you and we will win this race thank you. That was an excellent ending to our events thank you very much Mr. Hart for for those reflections I know we're seven minutes late so I'm just going to thank all the speakers thank you very much to the champions those who took initiative those who started in the first original group those who are joining I thank all of you for showing that leadership really walking the talk and I hope others continue to join you so finally thank you to E3G and the International Institute for Environment and Development for supporting this event thank you for the audience who've sat through and listened to the commitments and I hope what is it moving from ambition to accountability let's make sure we're following up on all these political comments or political commitments that are being made and finally there are refreshments downstairs I'm told and everyone is welcome so please join us as we continue this conversation it's only the beginning thank you