The Climate Change Summit is known by the acronym “COP26”, which means “the twenty-sixth conference of the parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change.”
The three major challenges that the climate change summit is set to tackle are three issues, foremost of which are financing, and the problems faced by the Green Climate Fund, which was established in 2010 and is governed by a 24-member council and supported by a South Korean-based general secretariat.
Fund tasks
Samir Tantawy, Climate Change Consultant and lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explains the role of the Green Climate Fund, and the obstacles it faces in carrying out its responsibilities; He says that the fund was established after rounds of painstaking negotiations and developed countries.
He adds to “Sky News Arabia” that the Green Climate Fund represents a critical component of the Paris Climate Agreement, which was adopted in 2015, and is the largest climate fund in the world, and is mandated to support developing countries in preparing and implementing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) ambitions towards low-emission and climate-resilient pathways. .
The fund is concerned with financing projects to mitigate emissions and adapt to the negative effects of climate change, by promoting integrated strategies, planning and policy-making to maximize joint benefits and achieve sustainable development goals. It also encourages financing climate innovation projects by investing in new technologies.
Tantawi explains the nature of the fund’s work, saying: “The fund works through a board of directors that is elected by the signatory countries to the Paris climate agreement, and the composition of the members and presidents is divided equally between developing and developed countries, and the administrative structure includes an executive secretariat that performs all technical work.”
He continued: “The fund also carries out its tasks through a network of more than 200 accredited entities and partners that work directly with developing countries to design and implement projects, and this network includes international and national commercial banks, regional and national multilateral development finance institutions, equity fund institutions, and United Nations agencies.” and civil society organisations.
Tantawi continues: “The Fund provides financing for the implementation of projects in developing countries, through a flexible mix of grants, soft debts, or guarantees, provided that the countries in which the projects are implemented participate in the financing through national support.”
Obstacles and challenges
The climate change consultant says that one of the most important obstacles facing the Fund in achieving its goals is the availability of funding. Since the 2009 climate summit held in Copenhagen – Denmark, industrialized countries pledged to provide $100 billion in funding annually to finance climate projects in developing countries, and these have not been achieved. pledges.
He continues: “Until this October, the fund, from the date of its establishment, had approved the financing of only 190 projects in all developing countries, with a total budget estimated at about $10 billion – equivalent to only 10 percent of the financial pledges.”
This flabby performance of the Fund prompted the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres, to put three main topics at the top of his agenda during the upcoming climate summit in Glasgow, including providing financing from industrialized countries and ensuring a fair distribution between countries and the quality of projects, whether mitigation or adaptation.
What awaits the fund in Glasgow?
Tantawi answers this question by saying: “The Executive Secretary of the Fund will present a report to the Glasgow Conference explaining the position and activities of the Fund for the previous year. The agenda of the conference is scheduled to include negotiating a number of topics related to climate finance, foremost of which is the Green Climate Fund.”
“In this context, developing countries are calling for more funding, ensuring a equitable geographical distribution of the Fund’s resources, as well as an equitable distribution of awareness projects, especially projects adapting to the negative effects of climate change.”
He added: “Although Africa is one of the most fortunate geographical regions in the number of projects funded by the Fund (77 projects), the total funding allocated to this number of projects is limited, as most of them are projects related to strengthening institutional building, raising awareness and building capacity in The area of adaptation, compared to well-funded mitigation projects.
Hardships are more than money
The difficulties faced by the Fund do not stop at the limited funding, but also the difficulty of preparing successful project proposals that ensure approval by the review and evaluation committees.
Tantawi says that most developing countries lack national competencies to prepare successful project proposals; It requires a large amount of information and detailed studies before approving the project proposal and submitting it to the Fund’s Board of Directors for approval of its financing.
He adds that during its 26th meeting, held from 12-14 October, the Standing Committee on Financial Affairs of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted a technical report extracted from the national reports submitted by countries to assess their climate financing needs.
He explained: “These national reports included national contributions reports, national communications reports, inventory reports every two years, national plans to adapt to climate change and low-emission development strategies, among others. A team of experts assessed those needs, whose estimates came in the range of $5 trillion.” .
The climate change consultant concludes his speech to “Sky News Arabia”, noting that it is expected that the negotiators of developing countries will rely on the report of the Finance Committee in demanding to raise the ceiling of funding provided by industrialized countries for climate finance, especially for the Green Climate Fund.
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