01.07.2019

Global action for climate change mitigation

GIZ’s business volume up 17 per cent in 2018

Berlin, 1 July 2019 Climate change is already threatening many people’s livelihoods, with developing countries and emerging economies particu-larly affected. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusam-menarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is therefore working worldwide on behalf of the German Government in the areas of climate and energy. ‘International cooperation is vital if climate change is to be reversed globally,’ said Tan-ja Gönner, Chair of GIZ’s Management Board, at the annual press con-ference, adding that the worlds of politics, business, science, civil society and development cooperation need to work together closely.

Climate change mitigation and energy is therefore an important priority area in GIZ’s work. A third of the company’s work in the public-benefit business area relates to the climate. ‘The effects of climate change are becoming increasingly difficult to tackle: crop losses, diminishing liveli-hoods, hunger and disease are posing a particular threat for developing countries,’ said Martin Jäger, Chair of GIZ’s Supervisory Board and State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). ‘To promote global climate change reversal and improve people’s prospects in the long term, we need to invest even more in development in the future.’

Together with its commissioning parties and partners, GIZ has already accomplished a great deal around the world: with GIZ’s support, green-house gas emissions were reduced by an equivalent of 36 million tonnes of CO2 between 2015 and 2017. During this period, GIZ supported 14 million people in coping with climate change – for example through improved flood defences and insurance against damage.

Regional solutions tailored to local living conditions are a key factor for success. In South-East Asia, for example, GIZ supports rice farming on behalf of BMZ: with the help of satellites, more than 15 million hectares of arable land were monitored in order to better predict crop failures. The farmers concerned were then provided with swifter assistance in the event of damage. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the En-vironment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), GIZ is working with Chile to make the switch to renewable energy. With GIZ’s support, the installed capacity of solar systems was increased to more than 2,400 MW, while the installed capacity of wind parks was increased to more than 1,700 MW. GIZ is supporting the island state of Grenada in making the supply of drinking water more resistant to the effects of cli-mate change for more than 100,000 people. The project marks the first time that GIZ has worked for the Green Climate Fund. GIZ also takes responsibility for climate protection as a company: ‘Avoiding, reducing and offsetting greenhouse gases – that is our basic principle,’ said Gön-ner, Chair of the Management Board. Between 2015 and 2017, GIZ re-duced CO2 emissions per member of the workforce in Germany by 4.6 per cent. ‘GIZ aims to become climate neutral by 2020.’

In addition to climate and energy, important topics for GIZ’s work in fiscal 2018 were security and stabilisation, and displacement and migration. Projects relating to business and investment in Africa are also becoming increasingly important. Business volume totalled around EUR 3 billion, an increase of 17 per cent year on year. Commissions came from the German Government, the European Union (EU) and from national gov-ernments, foundations and businesses. Almost half of the income GIZ generated in the public-benefit business area was from competitive ten-ders. BMZ remained GIZ’s main commissioning party: GIZ received in-come totalling around EUR 2.5 billion through BMZ, 16 per cent more than in the previous year. This included funding from third parties, such as the EU, foreign governments and foundations who, as cofinanciers, provided additional funds totalling around EUR 380 million in 2018. 

Income from other German public sector clients also increased signifi-cantly (by around 14 per cent to EUR 375 million). The EU is GIZ’s sec-ond largest donor, with around EUR 358 million and an increase of ap-proximately EUR 23 million, when funding from cofinancing arrange-ments and direct commissions are combined. The growing demand for GIZ’s services is also reflected in its workforce figures. At the end of 2018, GIZ employed a total workforce of 20,726, a year-on-year in-crease of 1,220. Almost 70 per cent of the workforce were national per-sonnel in the countries of assignment.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federal enterprise with worldwide operations. We support the German Government in the field of international cooperation for sustain-able development. We are also engaged in international education activi-ties around the globe. Through our work, we assist people and societies in shaping their own future and improving living conditions. You can find the Integrated Company Report, which contains these figures and further information and numbers, at https://berichterstattung.giz.de