Green Climate Fund (GCF) Approves 11 Project Proposals for Funding
The 18th GCF Board meeting was held on September 30 to October 2, 2017, in Cairo, Egypt. The Board approved 11 projects worth USD 392.86 million.
Out of the 13 funding proposals, only 2 received no consensus from the Board Members. The two proposals were from Paraguay and Argentina. The Paraguay project was on “Poverty, Reforestation, Energy and Climate Change,” and the Argentinian proposal was on “Climate Action for Rural Development: community-based adaptation and mitigation.” The objection raised by the UK Board member was related to the “level of concessionality sought” and “the rationale for GCF funding” given the “development and income status” of the two countries.
The funding proposals that were approved are as follow:
- USD 8.65 million for the ‘Renewable Energy Programme #1 – Solar in Mongolia’ with XacBank as the accredited entity (AE);
- USD 110 million for the ‘GCF- European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Kazakhstan Renewables Framework programme’ in Kazakhstan with the EBRD as the AE;
- USD 20 million for ‘Low Emissions and Climate Resilient Agriculture Risk Sharing Facility’ in Guatemala and Mexico with the Inter-American Development Bank as the AE;
- USD 9.98 million for ‘Building the Climate Resilience of Food Insecure Smallholder Farmers Through Integrated Management of Climate Risk project in Senegal with the United Nations World Food Programme as the AE;
- USD 26.56 million for the ‘Bhutan for Life project’ in Bhutan with the World Wildlife Fund as the AE;
- USD 17.35 million for the ‘Scaling-up Investment in Low-Carbon Public Buildings project in Bosnia and Herzegovina’ with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the AE.
- USD 26.91 million for the ‘Sustainable and Climate Resilient Connectivity for Nauru project’ involving the construction of a port in Nauru, with the Asian Development Bank as the AE;
- USD 31.39 million for ‘Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in the North Coast and Nile Delta Regions’ in Egypt project with UNDP as the AE;
- USD 58.53 million for the ‘Implementation Project for the Management Plan of the Lujan River Basin’ in Argentina with the Development Bank of Latin America as the AE;
- USD 38.5 million for the ‘Scaling up Climate Resilient Water Management Practices for Vulnerable Communities in La Mojana,’ project in Colombia with UNDP as the AE; and
- USD 45 million for the ‘Responding to the Increasing Risk of Drought: Building Gender-responsive Resilience of the Most Vulnerable Communities project,’ in Ethiopia with the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation as the AE
In addition, the Board members approved the five entities seeking accreditation from the GCF as project implementing entities. The GCF has now a total of 59 Accredited Entities including the newly endorsed entities:
- China Clean Development Mechanism Fund Management Centre (China CDM Fund Management Centre), based in China;
- Department of Environment (DOE) of Antigua and Barbuda;
- Fiji Development Bank (FDB), based in Fiji;
- Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), based in Bangladesh;
- Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), based in Tunisia
Some of the items that are of interest to our organization include accreditation frameworks and policy gaps, policies related to prohibited practices, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (or AML/TFC), and the REDD-plus results-based payments. The Board has approved most of these agenda items.
If you want to watch the video recording of the GCF B.18, you may see the video recording here.
The next Board meeting will be held in Songdo, South Korea, where the GCF Secretariat is located. The dates decided are from February 27 to March 1, 2018.
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