African Development Bank and Global Center on Adaptation work with partners to increase capacity to access finance for climate adaptation | African Development Bank

The African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation today launched a new initiative under the Technical Assistant Program of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program to help African countries access more finance for climate adaptation.

A climate rationale is the scientific basis of a project and describes the climate scenario, outlining the climate problem in a particular country (e.g. floods, droughts for an adaptation project) and region in which the project will be carried out. The Green Climate Fund’s strict requirement for climate justification based on 30 years of climate data from point sources has led to a high failure rate for funding proposals with a focus on adaptation.

Through this new initiative, Direct Access Entities in Africa will receive additional support to enhance their capacity with regard to climate data, tools and methodologies that help them meet the critical requirements of climate reasoning for compelling funding proposals that could earn GCF Board approval . .

The GCF is one of the mechanisms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to make a significant contribution to global efforts to achieve the goals set by the international community to mitigate climate change. It supports developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change. For adaptation, it allocates resources based on: (i) the ability of a proposed activity to demonstrate its potential to adapt to climate change impacts by promoting sustainable development and a paradigm shift; (ii) the urgent and immediate needs of vulnerable countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing states and African states.

The African Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation will work with their partners to select at least four proposals each year from the pipeline of funding proposals from Direct Access Entities that require additional technical assistance and guidance. Through its Technical Assistance Program (TAP), the Global Center on Adaptation will provide technical assistance for a selected set of funding proposals.

The launch event for the new initiative took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on the 6^e and 7^e December with program partners including the Green Climate Fund (GCF), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Africa Climate Change Fund, ClimDev Special Fund and Regional Climate Centers in Africa.

23 Direct Access Entities accredited or in the final stage of accreditation at GCF participated in the two-day event with representatives from regional and international accredited entities including the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the West African Development Bank, the Africa Finance Corporation and the United Nations Environment Programme.

In the opening address, Professor Anthony O. Nyong, Senior Director for Africa at the Global Center on Adaptation, said: “Africa is at the forefront of our climate crisis. With this new initiative, we want to significantly increase the flow of adaptation funding to the region. Given the central role of the Green Climate Fund, the unprecedented financing volumes it offers, the range of financial instruments it offers and the different access modalities, we will initially focus this initiative on access to GCF resources, but this is only the start of our long-term partnership with African countries to mobilize funding for climate adaptation across the continent. »

Dr. Al Hamndou Dorsouma, acting director of the Climate Change and Green Growth Department at the African Development Bank, said: “The climate rationale for the GCF funding proposal is like the foundation of a building. A solid building must have a solid foundation and I am pleased that our bank has partnered with relevant regional and international institutions to help direct access entities gain approval for more adaptation financing proposals with strong climate reasoning.”

Dr. Kevin Horsburgh, Chief Climate Scientist representing GCF, commented: “To promote transformational projects and catalyze climate finance at scale, GCF takes a four-pronged approach: transformational planning; catalyze innovation; reduce high-impact high-risk projects; and align financing with sustainable development. Each step needs the best available information to support decision making. The GCF is delighted to be working with the WMO to bridge the gap between climate information and everyone who needs to use it, to improve access to climate finance.”

Amir Delju, Senior Scientific Officer at the World Meteorological Organization, said: “An effective and progressive response to the pressing threat of climate change must be based on ‘the best available scientific knowledge’. We recognize that it is a major challenge for least developed countries to meet this requirement. As an expert service provider, WMO will continue to provide the full value cycle of climate services, from data to analysis, information production, interpretation of findings and expert advice.”