During the “One Planet” Summit, organized by the French president Emmanuel Macron, due to the 2nd anniversary of the Paris Agreement, the Argentinian minister of Environment and sustainable development, Sergio Bergman, publicly endorsed sustainable finances as a key element of the Argentinian presidency of the G20 in 2018.

Previously, in a debate panel that included Mark Carney, Chairman of the Financial Stability Board and Governor of the Bank of England; Michael R. Bloomberg, Chairman of the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures, founder of Bloomberg LP, and former mayor of New York; and a group of international investors and companies, Bergman pointed out President Mauricio Macri’s commitment with the G20 agenda in 2018, focused on building consensus for a sustainable and fair development.

In president Macri’s letter to his French peer, President Macron, Argentina’s commitment with climate change was ratified. “I am proud to share that our country strongly endorses the Paris Agreement, and that Argentina will continue to have an active participation with the other State Members to achieve its implementation”, said Macri.

As president of the G20 in 2018, the main priority of Argentina will be to ensure “dialogues that generate consensus to achieve sustainable and fair development”, said Bergman. “Argentina expects to fulfil its 2030 goals in terms of energy and forests with policies fostered by the government to fight climate change”, he said.

In Hamburg, the G20 members reassured their commitment with the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and their Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Development Financing.

The G20 members also ackowledged that major resilient and sustainable public and private investments will be needed. Under its presidency, Argentina will develop an agenda that includes developing green financing under the motto of sustainable finances. The research will focus on three key areas: a) development of financial assets for capital markets to promote investments in sustainable projects; b) using private and risk capital for sustainable investments; and c) using digital finances to move sustainable capital.

Barbara Hendricks, German Minister of Environment: “Including climate change and green financing in economic and tax policies were key priorities under the German presidency of the G20, and will remain a priority for Germany. The OECD has clearly proven that investing in climate is investing in growth.”

Michael R. Bloomberg, President of the GTDF, said: “by maintaining the support on the green financing agenda of the G20, Argentina is contributing to ensure that climate risks are clearly and comparably reported. This will be useful for investors and companies from all over the world, as a with greater data transparency, companies and investors may include the price of climate risks and opportunities in their decision making process, and promote a smooth transition towards a low carbon economy, aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement”.

Argentina also announced a new task force on climate sustainability. One of the three priorities of this task force will be to address the need of aligning international climate financial flows with and effective implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), and with long term strategies on low green gas emission, as a key measure to make sure that the Paris Agreement goals be achieved.