Minister Vanhanen to chair Climate Coalition’s first annual meeting

The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action will hold its first annual meeting on Monday 12 October. Finland will have an important role at this virtual meeting as Minister of Finance Matti Vanhanen will chair the meeting jointly with Chile's Minister of Finance, Ignacio Briones.

The meeting is part of the 2020 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to the Finnish government, the finance ministers will discuss the work of the Climate Coalition and will determine its priorities for next year. The agenda includes the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic for the work of the finance ministers, and how climate action can be taken into account in economic stimulus and recovery measures.

The finance ministers will also endorse the Coalition’s annual report and adopt rules for giving the Coalition a more permanent structure.

In addition to the finance ministers, the annual meeting will be attended by the Coalition's institutional partners. The IMF will be represented by its Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, and the OECD by Secretary-General Angel Gurría.

London School of Economics Professor Lord Nicholas Stern will also attend the meeting. He is an adviser to the Coalition and is Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

A Finnish initiative

The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action brings together fiscal and economic policymakers from around the world and seeks to ensure fiscal and economic planning is part of the global response to climate change.

The Coalition was launched in Washington in April 2019 on Finland’s initiative.

The Coalition has more than 50 member countries, each committed to a set of principles known as the Helsinki Principles.