2023-12-02 12:05:01
New pledges to finance Green Climate Fund projects. Here are the most prominent goals
Kamla Harris, US Vice President, confirmed today, Saturday, that the United States will pledge $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund.
The British government also announced a contribution of two billion dollars to the fund, yesterday, Friday. Last month, the French government confirmed its contribution of 1.61 billion euros (regarding 1.77 billion dollars) to the fund for the period 2024-2027.
What is the Green Climate Fund? What are its funding sources and the purpose of its establishment?
The Green Climate Fund is the world’s largest multilateral climate fund.
The Fund was established in 2010 in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, with 194 countries signing the agreement.
The Fund is responsible for operating the financial mechanism to assist developing countries in climate adaptation practices and mitigate damages to confront climate change.
As the world’s largest climate fund, the Fund works to accelerate climate change in developing countries and finances projects to help countries transition to clean energy.
To achieve this, the Fund supports green projects in emerging and developing countries, such as investments in climate-friendly agriculture, coastal protection, reforestation, and the energy transition.
The Fund focuses in particular on supporting projects in less developed, fragile and conflict-ridden countries, to access green energy, confront climate change, and enhance food security and water supplies for local communities.
Focus on poorer countries
In this context, the Fund was mandated to invest 50% of its resources in efforts to mitigate the consequences of climate change, and 50% in adapting to change in the form of equivalent grants, according to the Fund’s official website.
At least half of adaptation resources must be invested in countries most vulnerable to climate change, such as small island developing States, least developed countries, and African countries.
The Fund currently finances green projects in 129 developing countries, through regarding 243 projects, with financing amounting to regarding $13.5 billion.
The Fund’s administrators confirm that it has become a vital part of the global climate financing structure, as it mobilized $10 billion during the first replenishment of its resources and invested in transformative climate projects worth more than $40 billion (including co-financing), in more than 100 projects. A country, where up to 900 million people benefited from it.
The fund’s administrators reported at its conference in Germany last October that the current second round of replenishing the fund’s resources had obtained pledges from 25 countries amounting to regarding $9.3 billion to finance projects in countries vulnerable to climate impacts between 2024 and 2027.
They emphasized that GCF-2 is crucial to operationalizing the global collective goal of ambitious and accessible climate finance.
The second global climate framework will further strengthen the Fund’s capacity to respond urgently to the climate crisis and enable climate action in developing countries during the aforementioned period.
According to the Fund, the pledges represent a fraction of the approximately $250 billion that developing countries will need annually by 2030 to adapt to a warmer world.
While the United Nations High-Level Independent Expert Group on Climate Finance estimated last year that developing countries will need more than two trillion dollars annually by 2030 to finance climate resilience and development priorities.
Replenishment of resources
The Fund described the pledges announced last October, at the high-level pledging conference for the second Green Climate Fund (GCF-2) replenishment in Germany, as “a major milestone in the GCF replenishment process, but it is not the end point.”
The issue of burdening developed countries with the cost of adapting poor countries to the consequences of climate change and their transition to an economy less dependent on fossil fuels is one of the most controversial topics in global climate negotiations.
Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, Mafalda Duarte, said at the conference, “We are confident that support for the Fund will continue to grow in the coming months and years, to achieve its goal of “$50 billion by 2020,” or what was called the “50 in 30” vision, meaning regarding three times its capital. The current amount is $17 billion.
“We will redouble our efforts to support vulnerable groups, unleash private capital, enhance efficiency, and enable transformative climate action where it is needed most,” she added.
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