The Green Climate Fund says it has made available nine billion dollars for some selected countries including Ghana to access money for climate change projects.
The Green Climate Fund, according to the UNDP, will help the Finance Ministry endorse contracts that only meet requirements set out to protect the environment.
Speaking to journalists after an engagement with some key stakeholders, the Project Coordinator of the Green Climate Fund Readiness with the UNDP, Ayirebi Frimpong, explained that Ghana is expected to present a national plan to access the funds.
He stated that the UNDP has been given the mandate to provide finance for developing countries to be able to address issues on climate change.
“What we are doing is that, every year projects that are submitted have to be aligned with the priorities of the countries. So we have realized that sometimes we get projects that may not be aligned with the national priorities.”
Due to this, Mr. Frimpong stated that all countries that wish to participate must develop a country programme that will meet a requirement.
“This basically means that every country is going to tell the GCF their plans in terms of the projects that they want to get money for the next four years because the GCF has got money about 9 billion dollars.”
About Green Climate Fund
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was established in 2010 as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), designed to disburse 9 billion dollars per year of new and additional resources by 2020 for addressing climate change.
Access to Fund resources will be through national, regional and international implementing entities accredited by the Board.
Direct access by national public and private entities has been a key feature of the Fund in line with a GCF’s commitment to country ownership.
The Government of Ghana nominated the Real Sector Division of the Ministry of Finance to be the National Designated Authority (NDA) to liaise with the GCF.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness Programme, a joint partnership between UNDP, UNEP, and World Resource Institute (WRI), is a global programme to support countries for enhanced access to international climate finance.
The Programme in Ghana was launched in June 2015, and seeks to support the Government of Ghana in strengthening national capacities to effectively and efficiently plan for, access, manage, deploy and monitor climate financing in particular through the GCF.
The project has targeted two important aspects of the GCF approach which include access to funds and private sector engagement, both of which will require significant preparatory work in many countries before GCF financing will be possible at scale.
The GCF Readiness Programme has focused on a range of preparatory activities to build and strengthen the institutional capacity of national entities in Ghana, with a focus on enabling direct access.
It is also targeted at helping Ghana prepare climate change mitigation and adaptation investment strategies, programmes and projects, including through the active involvement of both the public and private sectors.