The Ninth Meeting of the San Giorgio Group
Delivering a Just and Resilient Global Transition
The San Giorgio Group convenes climate finance leaders who are actively engaged in accelerating the transition to more sustainable, lower-emission economies. Bringing together key stakeholders across the public and private sectors, we leverage diverse viewpoints and frank discussion to assess and prioritize critical issues that require our collective effort to address in the near term.
The 2022 San Giorgio Group moved the needle on important topics such as net zero integrity, just transition, and evolving the public finance model.
In 2023, our community needs to increase collaboration and coordination, as the challenge of competing economic, political, and institutional forces threaten to forestall the recent momentum we’ve made in mainstreaming climate finance. We now need to focus on delivering.
Agenda
Thursday, 23 March 2023
9:00 – 9:15 | Welcome and Opening Remarks
Barbara Buchner, Global Managing Director, Climate Policy Initiative
9:15 – 10:15 | Opening Panel. Setting the scene: What do we need to prioritize and get right in 2023?
SGG9 will open with a panel and interactive discussion that will provide structure and focus to this year’s Group. With an increasingly uncertain global macroeconomic environment and growing complexity within climate policy and finance as more actors, agendas, and initiatives engage with climate issues, how do we identify the top priorities that will deliver the most impact in the near term?
10:45 – 12:45 | Thematic Deep Dives. Key Challenges and Opportunities to Drive Ambition
Based on input from San Giorgio Group members, this year’s meeting will focus on three key themes:
- Just Energy Transition
- Adaptation, Resilience & Nature, and
- Public Finance Architecture Reform
The first half of the day will introduce each of these topics in detail. After lunch, we will form breakout groups to develop and prioritize suggested solutions that can be delivered in the near term for each thematic agenda.
10:45 – 11:15 | Theme 1. Just Energy Transition: Building the Framework
The renewable energy landscape changed significantly in 2022. With frustrating juxtaposition, the pace and scale of renewable energy expansion accelerated while at the same time fossil fuel investment and subsidies remained at alarming levels and oil and gas companies earned historically high profits.
This evolving landscape requires continual adjustment to address gaps and minimize unintended consequences, especially for emerging markets and developing economies.
Key considerations for discussion will include:
- New sources of capital to close the just energy transition investment gap, from carbon markets, to evolving JETP models, to better leveraging existing alliances like GFANZ.
- Options and opportunities for addressing the already high and rising cost of capital for projects in developing economies.
- Better sequencing of policy frameworks and investments to maximize the attractiveness of renewables, discourage fossil fuel investment, and address harmful subsidies.
11:15 – 11:45 | Theme 2. Adaptation, Resilience, and its Nexus with Nature: Accelerating Progress
Adaptation, resilience, and nature are finally getting prominence, from the Glasgow Pact’s commitments, to doubling public finance for adaptation and resilience, to breakthroughs at CBD’s COP15. While there is clear interest in significantly advancing adaptation and resilience efforts in 2023, there is a lack of a clear objective to rally around—no parallel to “net zero by 2050”—and align efforts. Critical detail is missing to better direct investments where they are needed most.
To better define both the big picture and specific action, we will consider:
- What is required to establish a clear adaptation and resilience goal beyond financial mobilization?
- How to significantly advance the bankability of adaptation, resilience, and nature-focused efforts to mobilize private finance at the scale required? Can relevant lessons from the scaling and adoption of renewable energies be used to accelerate the timeline for A&R?
- How can we better identify the links between adaptation, resilience, and nature-focused investments? Do we need to reframe “returns” in a different way to do so?
12:00 – 12:30 | Theme 3. Adjusting the International Financial Architecture
Last year saw major contributions to the public finance reform agenda, including Finance for Climate Action (the “Songwe-Stern report”), the Bridgetown Agenda, and the Independent Review of Multilateral Development Banks’ Capital Adequacy Frameworks submitted to the G20 finance ministers.
Each of these offers policy prescriptions that address multiple, systemic issues, from MDB lending criteria, to leveraging MDB balance sheets more, to addressing sovereign indebtedness and debt repayment. We will consider:
- How much of this agenda can be implemented in 2023? Are there easier wins if we focus on adjustments in the near term rather than waiting for needed, but time-consuming, full-blown reform?
- With an eye on the World Bank Group and IMF Spring Meetings in mid-April and the Summit for a New Global Finance Pact in June, assess what needs to happen, whether and how to prioritize, and which actors need to be engaged more intensively.
14:00 – 16:00 | Thematic Break-out Sessions: Developing Solutions
We will form breakout groups for each of the above three themes. Each group will be tasked with amplifying the morning’s discussion to develop an “SGG agenda” for each theme, including:
- What needs to be achieved in 2023 to progress this topic?
- What are the near-term solutions for achieving these needs and what are the critical challenges preventing these from being achieved?
- Who needs to be involved and what do we need to do to overcome those challenges and reach the stated 2023 goals?
16:30 – 17:45 | Insights from the Break-out Sessions
We will end the first day by hearing from each of the break-out sessions. This will set the stage for tomorrow’s work on turning the ideas from today’s sessions into action plans.
Friday, 24 March 2023
9:15 – 9:45 | Welcome to Day 2: Turning Ideas into Action
We will review the summaries and ideas generated from Day 1, so everyone is equipped to discuss concrete next steps.
9:45 – 10:45 | Plenary, Part 1: The Big Picture
What are the key takeaways from yesterday’s work? How do these themes and roadmaps connect with the big picture needs for climate finance in 2023? Is the emerging SGG Agenda an appropriate and practical roadmap to deliver for each theme in 2023?
11:15 – 12:15 | Plenary, Part 2: The San Giorgio Group Agenda
Where can the San Giorgio Group make the most impact; what is its added value? How can we move forward with integrity and accountability? What is needed to measure progress? Who else do we need to include to ensure progress in 2023?
12:15 – 12:30 | Closing
We will close the meeting with a summary of the discussion, next steps, and review of key priorities and commitments we will all take back with us.
