Climate fund chief targets vulnerable countries

Sub: Env

Sec: Int conventions

Context:

Green Climate Fund (GCF) chief Mafalda Duarte is on a mission to help vulnerable nations that have not yet received any assistance from the fund.

Green Climate Fund (GCF):

The Green Climate Fund is a fund established at COP 16 in 2010, within the framework of the UNFCCC dedicated to helping developing countries adapt to and mitigate climate change.
It is a United Nations’ flagship organisation for channelling climate funding for developing countries worst hit by climate impacts.
Money disbursed helps nations to draw down their greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to storms, droughts and heatwaves made worse by climate change, and deal with sea level rise.
GCF headquarters is located in Songdo, South Korea.
TheGreen Climate Fund’s (GCF) aim is to expand collective human action to respond to climate change. The Fund aims to mobilize funding at scale to invest in low-emission and climate-resilient development on our home planet.
It is designed as an operating entity of the Convention’s financial mechanism and is headquartered in the Republic of Korea. It is governed by a 24 Board member Board, representing countries, and receives guidance from the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP).
It allocates its resources to low-emission and climate-resilient projects and programmes in developing countries.
The Fund pays particular attention to the needs of societies that are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, in particular Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and African States

Issues with the fund:

GCF has failed in effectively targeting its funds towards the most vulnerable countries.
Some of the countries that are worst affected by climate change have not received any funding till now.
The fund, which began giving out grants a decade ago, has identified 19 climate-vulnerable nations that have received no or very limited funding.

GCF’s Priority list:

The GCF’s priority target list includes Algeria, the Central African Republic, Chad, Iraq, Lebanon, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea and South Sudan.
Also on the list is war-torn Somalia, hit by major floods last year and still reeling from its worst drought in decades.
The GCF has pledged to invest more than $100 million over the next year to help Somalia unlock investments and develop climate projects.