?Up to $2 trillion' investment is needed for the world to go green.
After a week showcasing pioneering projects that are tackling climate change, helping the urban poor and promoting gender equality, the UNFCCC's Momentum for Change initiative turned its attention to the most serious subject of all - money.
Sir Nicholas Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics, who moderated the launch of MfC's Innovative Finance pillar during the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, said that for the world to move to a green economy the international community needs to invest an extra 2 or 3 per cent of GDP - up to $2 trillion.
"It is a large sum but not huge in relation to world resources and it's a process that will result in great returns," he said.
The event discussed examples of innovative financial investment mechanisms taking place around the world, which could be scaled up to fund the exponential growth in the green economy that is needed to tackle climate change.
The panel, which included government ministers and representatives from global financial institutions, agreed that the funding gap will only be met through partnerships between the public and private sector.
Mohammed Saleh Abdulla Al Sada, the Qatari Minister for Energy, said progress was being made, with investment in renewable energy 17 per cent higher in 2011 than in 2010. But he added: "Greater public-private collaboration is required to find new solutions and stimulate new markets to deliver the mitigation and adaption agenda."
Greg Barker, the UK Minister for the Environment, described how a partnership between London-based financial institutions and major insurers was working with the Kenyan government to help develop the huge potential for geothermal energy within the Rift Valley.
He said: "[Partnerships like these] will see billions of dollars flooding into developing countries, not just the growth hotspots and the usual suspects like China but fairly spread into less developed countries as well."
A scheme in East Africa to recruit 12,000 "village entrepreneurs" to sell LED lighting to rural communities to replace the polluting kerosene lamps was highlighted by Abyd Karmali, managing director and global head of carbon markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
He said the kerosene market is worth about $37 billion a year. The new, eco-friendly businesses were being allowed to compete because his bank was helping to arrange micro loans and working with governments to lower import tariffs and exclude the LED systems from VAT.
Cao Duc Phat, Minister for Agriculture in Vietnam, said his government was working with 13 global companies through public-private partnerships to assist the country's 14 million small farmholders and 25 million agriculture workers.
"In the case of coffee, for example, production has increased 65 per cent and farmers' income has increased from $453 to $946 per capita," he said. "Emissions were reported to have reduced by 2.5 per cent."
The urgent need for governments to agree standardised regulations for the climate finance sector was stressed by Jochen Harnisch, head of division, Competence Sector for Environment and Climate, KfW Bankengruppe.
He said: "If there is a mass of bureaucracy and changing obligations and rules then it will deter the private sector. It needs to be simple and standardised [and] needs to be done now ? we cannot afford to experiment for another ten years."
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