National bodies in Senegal and Peru, non-profit investors Acumen and the Pacific’s SPREP approved to disburse funds
Climate finance is to help poor countries develop in a low carbon way and adapt to climate change impacts (Pic: Land Rover/Our Planet)
By Megan Darby
The UN’s flagship climate finance initiative has named seven intermediaries to channel cash to projects in poor countries.
At around 0130 in Songdo, South Korea, the Green Climate Fund board approved Pacific island fund SPREP and national entities based in Senegal and Peru.
Social impact investment fund Acumen, the Asian Development Bank, UN Development Programme and German development bank KfW also got accreditation.
Chosen out of 41 applicants, these bodies are responsible for getting donations from governments, so far totaling US$10 billion, to low carbon development and climate adaptation projects in the developing world.
#GCFund board approves a well-balanced set of 7 accredited entities which can start to access to Fund’s resources
— Jonathan Grant (@JG_climate) March 26, 2015
As the scheduled end time of the meeting came and went, other key decisions had yet to be made.
These included the role of the private sector and adoption of a gender policy to make sure women benefit as much as men from the fund.
Nor had they agreed on detailed criteria for lending. A demand by civil society to explicitly exclude coal and other fossil fuel projects is not expected to be considered until a later meeting.
Oscar Reyes, associate fellow at the Institute for Policy studies, told RTCC: “We could be in for a long night here in Songdo.”
#SaudiArabia single handedly tries to squash the interim gender policy being adopted at the #GCFund board meeting.
— Raju Pandit Chhetri (@rajupchhetri) March 26, 2015