Giza Gaspar-Martins, Least Developed Countries (LDC) Chair and Director of the Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Angola, opened the session highlighting research by IIED that says that it will cost US$93.7 billion dollars to implement the submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) in the post-2020 climate plan for 48 LDCs. The event was moderated by Saleemul Huq, Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD).
Neha Rai, Senior Researcher, IIED, said that of the US$350 billion dollars provided to climate finance globally only 10% have gone to developing countries. She further noted that of the money delivered to developing countries, 70% has gone to middle income countries.
Benito Müller, Director, European Capacity Building Initiative, highlighted that devolution to the local decision making level is important to enhance direct access to Green Climate Fund (GCF) resources. He encouraged countries to test their existing financial transfer mechanisms, such as development banks, to see which ones work best with regards to reaching local communities.
Victor Orindi, National Disaster Management Authority, Kenya, outlined a project working in five counties in Kenya to support them in accessing climate finance. To ensure that the money reaches the local communities the project’s County Climate Change Fund has a devolved governance system where the local communities’ funding wishes are prioritized.
Raju Pandit Chhetri, Prakriti Resources Centre, Nepal, spoke about Nepal’s priority for funding renewable energy and the five-year National Rural Renewable Energy Program that costs US$170 million and splits financing 50/50 between the Government of Nepal and donors. He outlined numerous challenges with the project, amongst other things: renewable energy still being a new sector that needs greater support and incentives; the geography of the country providing access difficulties; administrative burdens providing challenges; and renewable energy not being profitable to the private sector.
Saleemul Huq, criticized the capacity building support the GCF provides to countries to access the fund. He outlined that to mitigate the lack of capacity building support Bangladesh visited and learned from a Senegalese organization as they are the first organization to be accredited to both the Adaptation Fund and the GCF. He concluded by stating that South-to-South collaboration is crucial in learning how to access climate finance.
During the ensuing discussions, participants discussed, inter alia: what is meant by local in the GCF direct access modality; how other funds and nations could use the same direct access modality; the split between government and donor funding for both the Nepal and Kenya projects; the Bangladesh experience from visiting the Senegalese organization; and community participation in the Kenyan project. In response to a question from the audience regarding corruption, Müller said that “the only corruption-proof funding system is giving no money” and that the risk to funders is decreased when they fund many small projects rather than a few big projects.
See more at: http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop21/cdafrica-ap/1dec.html
