U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday that $3 trillion in new capital is required annually to combat climate change.
Speaking in Belém, Brazil, after meeting with G20 finance ministers to discuss economic development this week, she said that the global transition to a low-carbon economy “the single greatest opportunity of the 21st century.”
“Neglecting to address climate change and the loss of nature and biodiversity is not just bad environmental policy. It is also bad economic policy,” she said.
She emphasised the need for stronger climate finance policies through 2050 to address the “existential threat” to communities and economic strain posed by climate change, news agency Reuters wrote.
During her participation at the conference, she announced a new regional partnership to support efforts to disrupt the nature crimes that affect the amazon.
“Nature crimes generate hundreds of billions of dollars of illicit revenue while harming local communities and threatening critical ecosystems,” Yellen said. “These crimes fuel corruption and destabilization wherever they occur.”
“Our ambitions at home match our ambitions abroad,” she said.
