Finance

According to IEA projections, reaching net-zero globally by 2050 will require six times more mineral inputs in 2040 than today.  The UN Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) facilitates comprehensive resource classification and management, addressing technical, social, environmental, and economic issues, to help compare and steer investment options towards sustainable resource choices.  

Countries including Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden and Finland, UK, Mexico and China have successfully tested the application of UNFC, while – supporting the goals of the EU Green Deal – the European Commission has used it to integrate information on critical raw materials, including battery raw materials; and the African Union in mandating the use of UNFC-based African Minerals and Energy Classification and Management System.  The UN Secretary-General’s Policy Brief calls on extractive industries to align sustainable resource management efforts with UNFC.  

Internationally harmonized UNFC specifications also enable the assessment and reporting of renewable energy resources including geothermal, bioenergy, wind and solar. This can be vital to channel increased investments and to support concrete action: Australia, became the first jurisdiction to mandate UNFC use for Geothermal energy. UNFC can also help identify new regional and national production opportunities, including for secondary raw materials – helping to unlock circular economy approaches. 

Mineral resource extraction plays a dominant role in the economies of 81 countries that account for a quarter of global GDP, half of the world’s population and nearly 70% of those living in extreme poverty. UNECE – along with its fellow Regional Commissions, UNDP and UNEP – co-coordinates a Working Group on Transforming the Extractive Industries for Sustainable Development. The Group will coordinate extractives-related work across the UN and beyond; serve as an information and knowledge hub to scale up and replicate good practices; provide policy advice and technical assistance; and assist in integrating the extractive industries' work into other UN-wide initiatives, including on Financing for Development.  

UNECE and partners have mobilized governments, financial sector actors, mining and metals industry leaders, civil society and key stakeholders in the area of sustainable consumption and production and the circular economy to identify high-impact climate action projects. These focus on areas from scaling up renewables deployment to means of energy storage, and from critical raw materials to waste and digitalization, and form part of a UN compendium of climate finance initiatives. 

High-quality data is crucial for countries to make informed decisions on investment in climate action and to monitor their effects, and to strengthen the evidence base to mobilize climate finance. Robust and comparable data is also vital to evaluate and manage climate-related economic risks at the global level. UNECE brings together National Statistical Offices through the Conference of European Statisticians to identify data gaps, develop common guidance, and help countries improve the availability of relevant statistics.  

UNECE guidance puts the spotlight on the key opportunities and challenges for the development of the hydrogen economy in the region. This will require public and private investment on a massive scale and sustained political commitment. UNECE has also assisted Ukraine in developing a Roadmap for Hydrogen Infrastructure.  

UNECE Renewable Energy Hard Talks have brought together governments, investors and other key stakeholders to help Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Georgia, Kazakhstan, Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine to identify potential bottlenecks, find solutions and recommend strategies, policies and actions to increase their renewables uptake.   

The Water Convention supports countries and basins to unlock financing of transboundary water cooperation, basin development and climate change adaptation in shared basins through training, workshops, development of guidance documents and projects on-the-ground. Practical resources on Financing Climate Change Adaptation in Transboundary Basins support the preparation of bankable project proposals. The Water Convention also supported the Chu-Talas, the Dniester and the Drin basins in mobilizing international funding for climate change adaptation and integrated water resource management. In addition, the basins of the Global network of basins working on climate change adaptation have benefited from exchange of experience and training focused on facilitating funding for climate change adaptation in transboundary basins.  

Helping to mobilize funds for climate action as part of sustainable urban development efforts, UNECE released the Compendium of Practices on Innovative Financing for Smart Sustainable Cities Projects, which builds on the U4SSC Guidelines on tools and mechanisms to finance sustainable smart cities projects developed within the United for Smart Sustainable Cities Initiative. Under an interagency UN project on innovative financing for sustainable smart cities, UNECE also produces guidelines on tools and mechanisms to finance Smart Sustainable Cities.