Former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mary Schapiro were working on the Beta version of the Global Capacity Building Coalition’s Digital Platform while the same was to be launched at the COP 28. The plan behind its launch was to provide access to the most critical climate finance resources for financial institutions in the emerging markets and developing economies or EMDEs. However, the platform has great potential to significantly improve efforts toward global climate goals by providing free resources and technical assistance, especially to countries facing the biggest challenge in securing climate finance.
From its starting basis of 19 founding members, the Coalition has grown by leaps and bounds to now comprise over 50 organizations worldwide, in the growing need to put its efforts together toward change in climate.
With the growing demand for climate finance worldwide, the GCBC Digital Platform signifies a leading tool in supporting financial institutions in their efforts at helping unlock mobilized funds into sustainable projects and transitioning to net-zero economies.
Platform in Capacity Building of Climate Finance
Speaking about the importance of the platform to the developing world was United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael R. Bloomberg. “This platform will offer free resources and technical assistance to leaders in developing countries to help them cut emissions, drive economic growth, improve public health, and save lives,” he said. It targets financial institutions operating in developing markets that typically experience fragmented resources and less access to such available and critical information in handling the extreme situations of climate.
Well-timed, with the demand growing on the world’s financial institutions to supplement funds needed to achieve international climate objectives by 2030 in the amount of $2.4 trillion annually. Half of this amount is to be found domestically, in emerging markets, where demand for capacity-building resources has been most urgent.
Closing this gap, GCBC offers to provide a complete toolset that any financial institution can use in the complexity of climate finance. A Knowledge Hub that hosts climate finance resources such as a map of scalable climate finance projects arranged in case studies will be offered, along with a global calendar of events meant for learning and networking opportunities and features of real-time feedbacks that continue improving the platform according to user recommendations.
Building Climate Finance in EMDEs
This is a much-needed platform: in fact, as the GCBC discovered in its 2024 survey, 75 percent of financial institutions in emerging markets and developing economies reported “major difficulties” in accessing the resources they need to implement climate finance strategies. The new Digital Platform will centralise climate finance information needed by financial institutions, in order to have easier access to tools and best practices.
“Supporting emerging markets and developing economies in their transition to net zero is critical to preventing the worst impacts of climate change,” said Mary Schapiro, Chair of the GCBC. Schapiro pointed to the potential of the platform – it could be a game-changer in terms of how financial institutions in emerging markets and developing economies act on climate finance by giving them the knowledge and necessary tools to design sustainable projects and attract climate-related investments.
The platform is developed for maximum friendliness to users, targeting the needs of financial institutions in developing countries. It uses many languages for increased global access and involvement.
Coalition’s Global Reach and Support
The GCBC initiative has very impressive international outreach. Today, more than 50 members in the Coalition are represented by different areas, such as Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe. This network involves over 5,000 public and private financial institutions, central banks, and professionals specialized in finance, offering a huge pool of expertise and resources shared across borders.
Of course, the Asian Development Bank is one of several institutions supporting GCBC’s work. For Scott Morris, vice president of the ADB, capacity building is one crucial tool that should aid countries as they strive to reach their climatic milestones. “There is nothing more critical to building contributions to a net-zero economy than bolstering the capacity of developing member countries.”.
With members from such diverse regions and industries, the GCBC Digital Platform is already well positioned to cause a real difference in how climate finance is mobilized around the world. It not only supports financial institutions in emerging markets but also allows for greater international cooperation in combating global climate change.
The Road Ahead
The launch of the platform is exactly the precursor to its global consultative period that will run for 100 days, open to inviting comments from users about its features and usability. In this way, it will continue to improve while meeting the needs of the users.
The GCBC Digital Platform will play a prominent role in the global mobilization effort for the needed $2.4 trillion annual climate finance to be raised by 2030. The process of setting up strategies for climate finance will be speeded up, and financial institutions will have easy access to related resources, tools, and case studies on how best to achieve their sustainable growth and reduction of emissions goals.
The current threats from climate change against the already vulnerable populations around the world make initiatives like this capacity-building endeavor hugely important. The platform will safeguard the financial institutions that significantly fund climate solutions, helping to better equip emerging markets and developing economies with resources to allow them to meet their climate goals and contribute to a more sustainable future globally.
In conclusion, the GCBC Digital Platform has thus been a revolutionary endeavor that will make financial institutions in EMDEs come together and tackle the challenges of climate finance. The fact that it is unveiled now shows the great step the globe has taken in trying to do away with climate change: provision of necessary tools and helps accelerate the transition into a low-carbon economy.