The African Development Bank is working diligently to join the Green Climate Fund's (GCF) seven newly accredited agencies in order to become a key multilateral implementing agency to channel much-needed funding to the continent.
In a move which will bring the Green Climate Fund one step closer to its goal of financing adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries, the GCF Board accredited seven entities during its March 2015 Board meeting. As a result, these organizations are now eligible to submit project funding proposals for consideration later this year.
As of December 2014, the Fund, established at the 16th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2010 and approved the following year, had mobilized US $10.2 billion to finance adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries.
Funds may be accessed in two ways: directly through accredited subnational, national or regional implementing entities, or indirectly via accredited international entities, such as UN agencies, multilateral development banks, and international financial institutions.
The Board further narrowed down the Fund's investment priorities which target many of the continent's challenges such as sustainable climate-smart agriculture, transforming energy generation access, scaling-up finance for forests and climate change, and enhancing resilience of small island developing states.
According to Kurt Lonsway, AfDB Manager of the Environment and Climate Change Division, "The AfDB has been engaging with the GCF Secretariat on Bank accreditation, initiating the Fund management preparation, and discussing the Bank's project pipeline. Eligible for fast track accreditation, we are aiming for the Bank to be granted accreditation during the July Board meeting following completion of the application process."
Other decisions necessary to operationalizing the Fund were also made by the Board such as the initial investment framework, a policy on ethics and conflicts of interest, and the financial terms and conditions of the Fund's instruments.
The 9th GCF Board Meeting took place in Songdo, Republic of Korea, from March 24-26, 2015. The GCF is overseen by a board of 24 members, each with an alternate, composed of an equal number of members from developing and developed countries.
The newly accredited agencies include: non-profit global venture fund Acumen, Senegal's Centre de Suivi Ecologique, German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, the United Nations Development Programme, the Asian Development Bank, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program, and the Peruvian Trust Fund For National Parks and Protected Areas.
