Strategic documents for C/D/E

SDC’s institutional orientation

Based on multiple international frameworks and enrooted in the Swiss national legislation, C/D/E themes are strongly reflected in Switzerland’s Foreign Policy, and thus also in SDC’s institutional orientation.

Climate and environment are explicitly mentioned as specific objectives in both, the Swiss Foreign Policy Strategy 2024-2027 and the Swiss International Cooperation Strategy 2025-2028. This demonstrates Switzerland’s political commitment to strong action on climate change and the environment and establishes the framework for the SDC's policy and operational work.The Swiss IC strategy also sets out the earmarked financial contribution to Switzerland’s international public climate financing, to be achieved through all Swiss actors involved in the implementation of the strategy.
👉🏼more information on the strategic cascade

The strategic lines set out in the Swiss IC strategy are operationalized through specific and concrete cooperation programmes of SDC geographic and thematic units.
👉🏼more information on this and the concrete example of the programmatic framework of SDC’s CDE section

Switzerland’s work on climate, DRR and the environment is closely aligned with, and in support of, the most relevant global policy frameworks. These frameworks are supported by different global funds and financial mechanisms. The most relevant C/D/E global policy frameworks are:

• Sustainable Development Goals SDGs
• Convention on Biological Diversity CBD
• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC
• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification UNCCD
• Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

Under the UNFCCC, the Paris Climate Agreement adopted in 2015 is of prime importance for the SDC: As many other actors, the SDC strives to be “Paris aligned”, i.e. to align all its activities and operations with the Paris Agreement. More concretely, this means, that

• For mitigation: All SDC activities must be carried out in such a way that their greenhouse gas emissions are reduced as much as possible, with the aim of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
• For adaptation and climate resilience: All relevant activities, from the choice of agricultural crops to the location and design of school buildings, must take into account such effects of climate change as rising temperatures, more frequent and intense droughts or floods.

👉🏼more information on these frameworks (got to: "International frameworks and Swiss positioning")

Relevant global funds and financing mechanisms

Financial support is essential to address the costs of C/D/E risks and impacts and to accelerate the transition to low-emission, climate-resilient and environmentally sound development pathways. This is the reason why several large financing vehicles have been established. The most prominent of these are the Green Climate Fund GCF, the world’s largest climate fund aiming at accelerating transformative climate action in developing countries; the Global Environment Facility GEF, which covers a multilateral family of environmental funds and supports several multilateral environment agreements; and the Adaptation Fund AF, which focuses on climate resilience of vulnerable communities in developing countries. The GCF, GEF and AF are part of the UNFCCC Financial Mechanism.

In addition, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery GFDRR supports low- and middle-income countries to understand, manage, and reduce risks of natural hazards and climate change.

👉🏼more information on these funds (go to: "Relevant global funds...")

Swiss International Climate Finance

Switzerland is committed to contributing its fair share to the global effort of supporting climate action in developing countries. Its international climate finance consists of three main components, namely bilateral climate finance, i.e. projects and programs directly implemented through the SDC and SECO and their partners; multilateral climate finance including core contributions to multilateral development banks and climate-related funds; as well as mobilized private climate finance.

👉🏼more information including an overview of Switzerland’s public and mobilized private climate finance