It
will also seek to provide at least 50 per cent of this adaptation financing to
“particularly vulnerable countries,” a group that includes Least Developed
Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and African states.
It
is the first time within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) process that the balance of adaptation and mitigation has been
explicitly specified as 50 per cent, and exceeds expectations compared to an
initial draft that had put the adaptation target as low as 30 per cent.
But
plenty of devils lie in the details of what the Board decided.
These
headline figures are welcome news, and may serve to position the GCF as the
main channel for international adaptation financing. The targets came about, in
part, as a result of civil society pressure for the Fund to focus on adaptation
in countries that are already facing huge climate change impacts.
The
GCF decision does not set a strict floor on financing for adaptation, but only
“decides to aim for” 50 per cent. That leaves plenty of room for maneuver, as
does the fact that that such a balance would be achieved “over time.”
No
time frame is identified, and the decision is not binding on the Fund. We know
from the experience of the “fast-start” climate finance pledged in Copenhagen
in 2009 that a non-binding commitment to “balance” resulted in just 18 per cent
of funding directed towards adaptation.
Likewise,
the focus on vulnerable countries remains open-ended. The GCF only “aims for” a
50 per cent floor, without committing to achieve it, and the definition of
“particularly vulnerable” incorporates 116 of the 154 developing countries
defined as “non-Annex I” in UNFCCC terminology.
That’s
not enough to ensure that funding goes where it is most needed, and there is no
guarantee that this finance will come as grants rather than loans.
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