The federal government has announced that it will be giving a technical assistance grant valued at $20 million to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in order to support “climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience projects.”
Global Affairs Canada (GAC) said in a press release issued on June 26 that International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan made the funding announcement in London, U.K., while attending the Ukraine Recovery Conference—which is described as being focused on “mobilising international support for Ukraine’s economic and social stabilisation and recovery from the effects of war.”
Created in 1991, the EBRD is based in London and describes itself as a “climate finance leader” and an active supporter of Ukraine “and other countries affected by the war there.”
“We have also committed much of our recent activity to countering the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic,” the bank writes on its website.
GAC said the Liberal government’s $20 million grant for the EBRD comes as part of Ottawa’s support for the bank’s “High-Impact Partnership on Climate Action,” the primary objectives of which are to garner investments from across the globe in efforts to either “reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change, and protect the environment.”
GAC also said Minister Sajjan expressed Canada’s “support for the launch of the G7+ and the Government of Ukraine’s Clean Energy Partnership for Ukraine” while he was in London.
Other Investments
Following his trip to London, Sajjan also attended the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris, where he announced that Ottawa will be investing another $50 million in a strategy created by the private firm BlueOrchard that is focused on “gender equality, diversity, and inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean.”BlueOrchard, which is based in Zurich, Switzerland, says its investment fund is meant to “increase access to financing for women, Indigenous peoples, Afro-Descendants and other underserved groups” in the region.
GAC wrote that Canada is the “first investor” in the fund and expects it to “attract more than $215 million in additional investments.”
“Guided by our Feminist International Assistance Policy, these new investments demonstrate Canada’s strong commitment to the future of Ukraine and to supporting locally led solutions in the Global South,” Sajjan said in GAC’s press release.
