Earth Today | Climate funds yield results

MULTILATERAL CLIMATE Funds (MCFs) have produced a results impact report that reveals US$34 billion in total approved financing, US$176.2 billion in co-financing, close to 2,300 active adaptation and mitigation projects and more than 145 benefiting countries.

Adaptation and mitigation address, respectively, readiness for and reduction in the harm associated with climate change impacts that are driven by the ongoing consumption of fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, and the associated ballooning greenhouse gas emissions.

With climate change impacts extending from rising temperatures to coastal erosion and raging hurricanes – the likes of which devastated Jamaica last month – developing countries, including Caribbean SIDS, continue to lobby for more climate financing to advance their readiness (adaptation) and shore up proactive approaches to reducing or offsetting greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation).

The funds – including the Adaptation Fund (AF) the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) – said their country beneficiaries include 34 small island developing states, 46 least developed countries and 37 countries with fragile and conflict-affected situations.

“Each of our funds has a distinct mandate and unique strengths, yet our work is closely connected. Together, we are turning climate finance into real results on the ground. We are reducing emissions, helping vulnerable communities build resilience, advancing clean energy and technology, and protecting the natural world,” the group noted in the foreword of the report.

According to the report, the collective efforts of the funds have yielded a reduction or avoidance of some 710 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent as at December 2024 and are projected to reduce CO2 equivalent through their support of mitigation over the lifetime of the projects.

On adaptation, some 371 million beneficiaries have already reportedly been reached and another 1.785 billion are projected to be reached over the course of their support.

LARGEST CLIMATE FUND

In the last 120 years, the GCF has progressed from being the ‘new kid on the block’ to the largest, with investments to the tune of US$19.3 billion across 336 mitigation and adaptation projects in 134 countries.

“GCF’s portfolio is evenly split between mitigation and adaptation. Alongside this balance, 43 percent of its investments are cross-cutting, delivering both mitigation and adaptation benefits through integrated programmatic approaches. At least half of GCF’s adaptation finance is intended for LDCs, SIDS, and African states; as of December 2024, approximately 62 per cent of GCF’s adaptation finance has been directed to these vulnerable groups,” the report noted.

The GEF focuses on addressing the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution, and includes six funds that are concerned with people and planet.

In 30 years, “the GEF has provided more than US$26 billion in financing to more than 140 countries, primarily as grants, and mobilised another US$149 billion for country-driven projects”.

The AF, which operates using a grant-based financing model and from which Jamaica is among the Caribbean countries to have benefited, supports “concrete, country-driven climate adaptation projects in developing countries”.

“As of December 2024, the Fund had committed US$1.27 billion to 183 projects that strengthen livelihoods, protect ecosystems, enhance food and water security, and build climate-resilient infrastructure and early warning systems,” the report revealed.

After 17 years, the CIF, which is country driven “granting governments the scope to design multi-project investment plans in line with their priorities” and addresses policy, capacity and investment barriers.

“CIF provides highly concessional funding, including grants, and emphasizes co-financing, with more than US$65 billion unlocked as of 2024. CIF further emphasizes private sector outreach, financial innovation, and embracing risk to pioneer investments in hard-to-finance sectors,” the report said.

The funds, meanwhile, have said that the collaboration around the publication of the first impact report is a harbinger of things to come.

“This inaugural report paves the way for further coherence and complementarity across MCFs to measure and drive outcomes from multilateral climate action,” they said of the report, which was made public at the Belém, Brazil climate talks that ended on November 21, following two weeks of deliberations among countries.

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