Officials at the Green Climate Fund – which by 2020 is hoping to handle much of a promised $100 billion a year in funding to help poorer nations adopt clean energy and cope with more extreme weather and higher seas – have said it will channel half its cash to adaptation projects.
It is also working to provide poorer countries in need of money with “direct access” to funds though institutions they choose, rather than routing much of the funding through large banks, as has happened with most climate finance up to now.
But creating such a shift is hugely challenging, experts told a meeting on community-based adaptation to climate change this week in Dhaka.
“There are lots of challenges to really access these resources,” said Raju Pandit Chhetri, director of the Kathmandu-based Prakriti Resources Centre. “So much has to be in place.”
Efforts to help poorer countries develop the capacity to qualify for funding are underway in many places. But simply finding developing-country ministries, NGOs or other bodies willing to undertake the grueling accreditation process is tough, at least in Nepal, Chhetri said.
“The process takes lots of time and money, and there’s no guarantee you will get accredited,” he said. “It’s a huge investment for an organization to commit to this.”
To ease the problem, he believes poor countries seeking less money should face simpler and less stringent accreditation requirements in the early rounds of funding, with standards tightening as they learn and seek larger amounts.
“You can’t put a 25-year-old, a 16-year-old and a 5-year-old at the same starting line for a race,” he said. “It’s not fair.
“If it fails, it fails. But let us make an effort, so that in the long run we do not always rely on international institutions. We want to open that door,” he added.
For details, visit http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/04/29/world/africa/29reuters-climatechange-finance-innovation.html?ref=world&_r=3
