The Export-Import Bank of Korea (www.koreaexim.go.kr, Chairman Lee Duk-hoon, “Korea Eximbank”) announced that it held a Focus Session on climate finance on April 15, as a side-event of the First High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation which took place in Mexico City the same day.

Launched in 2012 June as a follow-up to the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan in 2011, the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation is a forum bringing together donor and recipient governments, NGOs, and private sector enterprizes to discuss how to make development cooperation more effective.

The First High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership which opened on April 15 was the first ministerial meeting of the Partnership since its launch. It was attended by around 1,300 delegates from 130 countries worldwide, including U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, OECD Secretary General Jose Angel Gurria and around 100 cabinet ministers.

The Focus Session on Climate Finance co-hosted by Korea Eximbank, Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Argentina's Ministry of Environment, El Salvador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the OECD, and UNDP was one among the 35 Focus Sessions organized on the sidelines of the five Plenary Sessions for the High-Level Meeting.

Themed "Climate Finance and Development: Challenges, Priorities, and Ways Forward in the Post-2015 Era", the session was devoted to raising awareness on climate finance and to exploring the role of the Partnership for Climate Finance and Development in the post-2015* global development agenda.
* 2015 is the deadline for the UN Millenium Development Goals.

In his keynote address for the session, Korea Eximbank Deputy President Nam Ki-sub noted "the direct impact of climate change on poverty and economic growth in developing countries", and called for a "strong effort to secure climate change mitigation resources and to develop effective ways of mobilizing them, in cooperation with the private sector."

At the time of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan in 2011, the bank led the climate finance agenda and organized the Partnership for Climate Finance and Development together with the OECD and UNDP.

The Partnership currently comprises 30 members including governments, international organizations, and civil society organizations.

Since Korea's hosting of the GCF (Green Climate Fund) in 2012, the bank expanded its scope of activities, hosting a workshop at the 18th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties and a global forum on climate finance in 2013.