Prepared by Abraham Sumalinog
The Green Climate Fund (GCF), with its Secretariat in Songdo, South Korea, held its third board meeting (second virtual meeting) on November 9-13, 2020, for four hours daily from 9 PM to 1 AM Korea Standard Time. Starting at 9:05 PM Korea Time, co-chairs Sue Szabo (Canada) and Nauman Bhatti (Pakistan) welcomed the Board Members to its second virtual board meeting. This article presents only brief and main items and results of the event.
The co-chair from Canada presented the document for the B26 report and the adoption of the report. The co-chair from Pakistan also presented the decisions proposed to the Board between B26 and B27, namely:
- Appointment of the ethics and audit committee chairs
- Appointment of External Auditors, and
- Performance Review and Accreditation of Observer Organizations–all of which were recorded as decisions under B27.
Only the Performance Review and Accreditation of Observer Organizations were not adopted by the Board.
Report on the Activities of the Secretariat
The Executive Director (ED) of GCF, Yannick Glemarec, presented his report on the Secretariat’s activities. The following are the six (6) priority areas that the Secretariat undertook from July to September 2020.
- Strengthening country-driven planning to originate and deliver high-quality, innovative, and scalable investments;
- Galvanizing engagement with Accredited Entities (AEs);
- Flipping Key Gaps in GCF Policy and Governance Frameworks;
- Reducing Engagement Costs and Time to Funding by Improving the Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Transparency of the GCF Process and the Speed of Delivery;
- Adopting Adaptive Management Portfolio Implementation and Strengthening the GCF Results Management; and
- Consolidating Institutional Capacities and Taking Initial Steps to Position the GCF to be a Global Knowledge Hub and Policy Influencer in Climate Finance
The ED reported its ongoing initiatives with regards to its priorities. He boasted a 55% reduction in processing days of funding proposal submissions to approval and a 22% reduction from approval to funds disbursement.
In terms of fund replenishment under GCF-1, the ED confirmed the receipt of the following, which, when finalized, will cross the USD 10 billion replenishment target:
- 50,000 Swiss francs from Liechtenstein
- 100 Million Euros from Austria
- 3 Million USD contributions from Qatar and 1 Million USD from the Brussel province (still to be finalized)
Funding Proposals
There were 16 Funding Proposals (FPs) presented to the Board for approval, equivalent to a total of USD 1 billion of GCF funding. Out of the 16 FPs, 11 are from international accredited entities (IAEs), and only 5 are from direct access entities (DAEs). Again, this batch of proposals is skewed towards Mitigation projects at 81%, equivalent to USD 821.12 million, and only 19% to Adaptation projects of only USD190 million GCF funding.
Projects Approved
SAP017: Climate Proofing Food Production Investments in Imbo and Moso in the Republic of Burundi
Accredited Entity: IFAD
Total project financing: USD 31.7 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 9.9 million (grant)
Co-financing: USD 21.72 million (grant) from IFAD
SAP018: Enhancing Climate Information Systems for Resilient Development in Liberia (Liberia CIS)
Accredited Entity: AfDB
Total project financing: USD 11.43 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 10 million (grant)
Co-financing: USD 1 million from GoL (in kind), USD 0.43 million from AfDB (grant)
SAP019: Gums for Adaptation and Mitigation in Sudan: Enhancing adaptive capacity of local communities and restoring carbon sink potential of the Gum Arabic belt, expanding Africa’s Great Green Wall
Accredited Entity: FAO
Total project financing: USD 9.975 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 9.97 million (grant)
FP141: Improving Adaptive Capacity and Risk Management of Rural Communities in Mongolia
Accredited Entity: UNDP
Total project financing: USD 79.3 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 23.1 million (grant)
Co-financing: USD 20 million from MET, USD 3 million from NEMA, USD 33.2 million from MoFALI
FP142: Argentina REDD+ RBP for 2014-2016
Accredited Entity: FAO
Total GCF funding requested: USD 82 million (RBP)
FP143: Planting Climate Resilience in Rural Communities of the Northeast (PCRP)
Accredited Entity: IFAD
Total project financing: USD 201.5 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 99.5 million (65 million loan, 34.5 million grant)
Co-financing: USD 30 million from IFAD (loan), USD 59.8 million from BNDES (loan), USD 13.72 million from participating states (cash or in-kind)
FP144: Costa Rica REDD+ RBP for 2014-2015
Accredited Entity: UNDP
Total GCF funding requested: USD 54.2 million (RBP)
FP145: RELIVE – Resilient Livelihoods of vulnerable smallholder farmers in the Mayan landscapes and the Dry Corridor of Guatemala
Accredited Entity: FAO
Total project financing: USD 66.68 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 29.84 million (grant)
Co-financing: USD 7 million from Korea International Cooperation Agency (grant), USD 5.74 million from MAGA (cash or in-kind), USD 24.10 million from INAB (grant)
FP146: Bio-CLIMA: Integrated climate action to reduce deforestation and strengthen resilience in BOSAWAS and Rio San Juan Biospheres
Accredited Entity: CABEI
Total financing: USD 115.7 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 26.1 million (grant) and USD 37.9 million (loan)
Co-financing: USD 19 million from CABEI (loan), USD 24.3 million from FCPF RBP (RBP), USD 8.3 million from GEF-7 (grant)
FP147: Enhancing Climate Information and Knowledge Services for resilience in 5 island countries of the Pacific Ocean
Accredited Entity: UNEP
Total project financing: USD 49.93 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 47.4 million (grant)
Co-financing: USD 2.38 million combined from 5 project countries (in-kind), USD 0.15 million from UNEP (in-kind)
FP148: Acumen – Participation in Energy Access Relief Facility
Accredited Entity: Acumen
Total project financing: at least USD 60 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 30 million (equity)
Co-financing: USD 30 million
FP149: Green Climate Financing Facility for LFIs in Latin America
Accredited Entity: Corporacion Andina de Formento (CAF)
Total project financing: USD 150.2 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 95 million (senior loans), USD 5 million (grants)
Co-financing: USD 50 million from CAF (senior loans), USD 0.2 million in from CAF (grant)
FP150: Promoting Private Sector investment through large scale adoption of energy-saving technologies and equipment for Textile and Readymade Garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh
Accredited Entity: IDCOL
Total project financing: USD 340.5 million
Total GCF funding requested: USD 250 million (senior loans), USD 6.5 million (grants)
Co-financing: USD 33 million (senior loans), USD 1 million from IDCOL (in-kind), USD 50 million from LFIs (senior loans), USD 0.02 million from Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) (in-kind)
FP 151 and FP 152: Global Sub-national Climate Fund (SnCF Global)
Accredited Entity: IUCN and Pegasus Capital Advisors
Total Project Financing: USD 778 million
Total GCF Funding Requested: USD 150 million (junior equity), USD 18.5 million (grants)
Co-financing: USD 600 million from PCA (Junior Equity), USD 9.5 million from IUCN (grant)
FP 153: Mongolia Green Finance Corporation
Accredited Entity: XacBank (LLC)
Total Project Financing: USD 49.654 million
Total GCF Funding Requested: USD 26.654 million (2 million grant, 20 million loans, and 4.654 million equity)
Co-financing: Government of Mongolia through Senior Loans (USD 13 million) and Equity (USD 5 million), and Participating Financial Institutions in Equity (USD 5 million)
Accreditation of Entities
There were four entities presented to the Board Members for approval. Three of which 3 are Direct Access Entities (DAEs) and an International Access Entity (IAE). Some of the entities need to fulfill several conditions set by the Accreditation Panel, such as developing grievance mechanisms and compliance with the Fund’s ESS. The 4 entities that were considered are:
- APL102 Kemitraan bagi Pembaruan Tata Pemerintahan (Partnership for Governance Reform) (Kemitraan) – DAE from Indonesia
- APL103 National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) – DAE from Nepal
- APL104 KCB Bank Kenya Limited (KCB Kenya) – DAE from Kenya
- APL105 Camco Management Limited (Camco) – IAE
Independent Integrity Units Reports
Independent Redress Mechanism
The Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM), under the Information Appeals Panel (IAP), presented the appeal of the CSO Active Observer (AO) Team as one of the highlights of its report. The CSO AO Team requested last May 2020 the Secretariat to disclose information on FPs, which are expected to be discussed in B26 and B27. However, the Secretariat rejected the request, thus prompting the CSO AO Team to submit an appeal. The IAP recommended to the Secretariat that the requested information be disclosed as early as possible but was rejected by the Fund’s Executive Director.
Independent Integrity Unit Report
The head of IIU (Ibrahim Pam) presented an overview of the past year’s achievements, such as the investigation processes and implementations of integrity policies. There’s 86% of the cases submitted and closed this year. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the IIU’s expenditure in 2020 was 76% only. Most of the procurement was done on the case management software. The IIU requested a total of USD 2.79 million to support its additional requests for personnel and relevant investigation materials, including software and IT materials.
Upcoming GCF BM Venues & Dates
The proposed upcoming GCF Board meeting dates and venues presented to the Board states that if circumstances allow, the next BM will be held physically at the GCF headquarters in Songdo, South Korea. The proposed schedule for the 2021 BMs are as follows:
- B28: March 16 – 19, 2021
- B29: June 29 – July 2, 2021
- B30: October 5 – 8, 2021
For further information, please check out the Green Climate Fund’s website.