The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board has approved 19 new projects for climate adaptation and mitigation, costing over one billion USD in GGF funding.
The approval came at the 21st board meeting, which was convened from October 17 to October 21 in Bahrain.
This brings the GCF portfolio to 93 projects and programs worth US$4,605 million in GCF funding to help developing countries in their low emission and climate-resilient development.
The board has approved 19 new projects amounting to a total investment from GCF of US$1,038 million, including co-financing projects that will channel over US$4,244 million.
Including these new projects, GCF has approved 42 new projects in 2018. A total of US$8,056 million in climate financing, including co-finance, green fund mobilizes since the start of the year.
According to GCF, during 2018 it has made a rapid acceleration in implementingprojects worth US$1.6 billion in GCF resources on the ground which now has 39 inprocess. These projects are being deployed as climate finance in support of developing countries’ climate ambitions under the Paris Agreement.
Onthe concluding day of the meeting the board decided to launch the process for the GCF’s first formal replenishment, marking a key moment in the development of the world’s largest dedicated fund for climate action.
The Board meeting also approved the applications of 16 new ‘Accredited Entities,’ the partner organizations that implement GCF projects. GCF now has 75 Accredited Entities, 41 of which are direct access, providing national and regional channels for developing countries to access GCF funds, as well as via GCF’s international Accredited Entities.
The 16 new ‘Accredited Entities’ are 3 of Brazil, 2 of Colombia,2 of United States of America, 2 France, one each of India, Cook Islands, Pakistan, Finland, Austria, Spain, Philippines based organizations. It includes corporation, ministry, bank, agency, research centers and non-government organizations.
Among the 19 approved projects in GCF21st meeting US$100 million are earmarked for Indonesia Geothermal Resource Risk Mitigation Project with World Bank, US$43.4 million for enhancing climate resilience of India’s coastal communities with UNDP, US$49 million for Green BRT Karachi in Pakistan with ADB.
Among these 19 projects, under the Simplified Approval Process (SAP), 3 small scale projects costing US$20.7 million were also approved.
'Deadlocks removed'
Dr Saleemul Haq,Director of International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)said it is a good move that 19 projects have been approved.No project was approved in the 20th meeting. Most of those projects have reappeared in the 21st meeting. As the deadlock is removing,Bangladesh will get a chance to submit its next projects which are now in the pipeline.
“Fund replenishment depending on next cop24 meeting”will be held in Poland, Dr Saleemul Haq said.
USA denied financing but EU leaders said they will fill the gap. However the amount, process, contributionof the financing will be clear after next cop” he added.
Economic Relation Department is the National Designated Authority (NDA), its deputy secretary Nur Ahmed said there were no projects to be approved this season. Approval of projects is positive sign that it will contribute to keep our planet from getting hotter wherever is being implemented.
“We will submit some proposals to be approved in next meetings as it is a continuous process and a matter of negotiation,” he added.
The Board also made a number of other significant decisions, including adopting a selection process for the recruitment of a new executive director and appointing Javier Manzanares as interim Executive Director, deciding to initiate a performance review of GCF to be carried out by the Independent Evaluation Unit, and selecting and appointing the World Bank as GCF’s trustee.
The Board also held in-depth discussions on developing a process for decision-making in the absence of consensus.
