INCHEON, South Korea: Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki on Thursday praised the Asian Development Bank’s agreement to create a financial facility to help emerging and developing countries combat climate change.

“Japan welcomes the agreement to create the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific, or IF-CAP,” Suzuki said in a speech at the ADB’s ongoing annual meeting in the South Korean city of Incheon.

He also said Japan will contribute 25 million dollars to the facility, which is seen providing up to 15 billion dollars in loans to finance decarbonization and climate-related projects in emerging and developing countries, based on financial assistance from developed countries including 3-billion-dollar guarantees.

Tokyo wants the ADB to “accelerate its work to start” the facility, Suzuki added.

On the economic front, he referred to “increasing financial risks seen in the recent turmoil of the banking sector in the United States and Europe” as one of the factors that “could hinder global economic recovery.”

Regarding debt crises in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, Suzuki stressed the importance of improving transparency by sharing debt data among creditor countries in order to prevent future defaults.

JIJI Press