Adaptation Fund / Green Climate Fund (GCF)

Small steps for climate finance in Lima: New pledges to the Adaptation Fund and the GCF

Source: http://www.cop20.pe

While the international climate negotiations in Lima are far off from agreeing on a clear road map how to reach the $100 billion per year promised from 2020 on, there have been some small pleasant surprises especially during the meeting of the ministers in the last days.

The biggest one: Germany has pledged €50 million for the Adaptation Fund (AF). Things have been rather quiet around the AF since all attention has been focussing around the Green Climate Fund (GCF). And the AF financial situation remains difficult, as its income from the Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) remains small due to insufficient emissions reduction targets from the Kyoto Member States.

Without the additional financing from national governments the AF cannot function. In October it seemed certain that the AF would never reach its fundraising target of $80 million this year. The German government has now set a good example in Lima which other countries now must follow.

In addition, Belgium has pledged €50 million for 2015 to the GCF. If the pledges for administrative costs and the Readiness Programme (i.e. the preparation for countries to actually receive money from the GCF) are included in the calculation, these €50 million push the GCF just beyond the threshold of $10 billion which was set as a minimum target for the first round (without administrative and readiness costs it only adds up to $9.88 billion plus the Belgian pledge).

Lili Fuhr / Heinrich Böll Foundation