Climate Conference Places Luxembourg at Heart of Sustainable Finance Efforts

On the evening of Wednesday 3 June 2026, the official opening ceremony of the Luxembourg International Climate Finance Days 2026 took place at the Cercle Cité in Luxembourg-Ville.

The ceremony welcomed guests including, Luxembourg Minister of Finance, Gilles Roth, Minister of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, Serge Wilmes, European Commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra and President of the European Investment Bank, Nadia Calviño, Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, Republic of Türkiye, Fatma Varank, Minister for Energy and the Environment, Republic of Estonia, Andres Sutt, Minister of Environment, Republic of Lithuania, Kastytis Žuromskas and Minister Delegate to the Environment and Sustainable Development, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Arlette Bahati Tito, to mark the launch of the three-day event dedicated to mobilising global climate finance.

Following a day of conferences, panel discussions and keynote speeches from guest speakers including members of the United Nations (UN), the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), on subjects such as sustainability, compliance and disclosure, artificial intelligence and building frameworks for nature-positive economies, around 300 guests gathered in the grand salle of the Cercle Cité for the official opening ceremony.

The event also marked the tenth anniversary of the UN-awarded Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX), which was created by LuxSE in 2016 to mobilise capital for sustainable development across the world.

Speaking to Chronicle.lu, Luxembourg’s Minister of the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, Serge Wilmes, noted that the first edition of the Luxembourg International Climate Finance Days was launched by the Ministry of Climate and Biodiversity and Environment because “we wanted to show that Luxembourg is a trusted bridge builder, because we are a global financial centre, so we have the expertise to show other member states, European member states but also institutional partners, that it is possible with public finance to onboard even more private finance, because what we urgently need is to close the gap between climate ambition and climate finance implementation”.

Minister Wilmes noted: “We really needed an implementation that can make the difference, that will have an impact, because the global average temperature is still rising, the global emissions, CO2 emissions are rising, and the least developed countries are the ones that are most impacted by this, and we need to help them. So, we need finance because they need funding and we need to provide it to them. We cannot do it just with national budgets, because they are quite under pressure, and it is not even enough, so we need not just billions, but trillions. In order to get these trillions, we also need the onboarding of private capital, and because we have that kind of expertise here in Luxembourg, we wanted to show this to our partners, and to exchange with trusted partners about what can we do to speed up and to scale up the whole process.”

He added: “But we also wanted to inspire others and to exchange best practices, so that others can see that it is possible, it is possible to make a difference, it is possible to fund climate projects, adaptation projects worldwide, but we just have needs to share the expertise, so that is what it is all about.”

International Climate Finance Days 2026 will continue on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 June, with a series of conferences and sessions at the European investment Bank (EIB), MUDAM (Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean) and the Philharmonie Luxembourg, in Luxembourg-Kirchberg, featuring contributions from a wide range of global climate finance leaders.