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Now that the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai has approved the new fund responding to loss and damage right at the start of the meeting, the implementation is getting a kick-start. Germany and the Vulnerable Twenty Group (V20) will be contributing some principles to the design of the Fund which are based on their practical experience with the Global Shield against Climate Risks, launched by Germany and the V20 a year ago as trailblazer. Germany, represented by Development Minister Svenja Schulze, and Ghana, chair of the V20, today held a joint press conference in Dubai to highlight these points.

Ukrainian municipalities are to play a key role in the country’s recovery and German cities and municipalities will lend their support to the efforts. This is the message of the German-Ukrainian Municipal Partnerships Conference in Leipzig that ends today. Alongside the Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Development Minister Svenja Schulze some 600 representatives of German and Ukrainian municipalities are attending the conference today.

Following the brutal attack of the terrorist group Hamas on Israel on 7 October, Development Minister Svenja Schulze had announced that Germany's development support for the Palestinian territories would be subjected to a review. However, taking account of the growing needs of people in the Gaza Strip and the increasingly unstable situation in a number of neighbouring countries, the review has focused, as a matter of priority, on the continuation of support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The shareholders of the World Bank have agreed at their Annual Meeting in Marrakech on an ambitious reform that will lead to more investments in climate action and other global development goals.

“We utterly condemn the Hamas attacks on Israel. This violence will produce only losers. Our full solidarity is with Israel in this difficult hour. We have always taken great care to ensure that our support for the people in the Palestinian territories serves peace and not terrorists. But these attacks on Israel mark a terrible watershed. And so we will be re-examining all our activities in support of the Palestinian territories. (...)”

At the conference for the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund hosted in Bonn by Germany a total of 9.322 billion US dollars was pledged. This funding will be used between 2024 and 2027 to finance projects that will drive forward climate action and the energy transition in developing countries and emerging economies, and will help developing countries particularly affected by climate change cope better with the impacts of global warming.