Ghana, for instance, requires $22.6billion in investments
to implement climate mitigation and adaptation actions.
While countries are expected to commit national
resources in undertaking climate mitigation and adaptation, overcoming the
climate scourge will demand huge international support to efficiently implement
the nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
The NDCs are efforts each country makes to reduce national
emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has been established as
a critical avenue to mobilize financial resources to address the challenge of
climate change.
Activated in 2010, the GCF operates as the financial
mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
to support the efforts in developing countries to respond to the challenge of
climate change.
Support to developing countries is to facilitate
limiting their greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.
So far, developed nations have pledged to provide a
current target of $100billion by 2020.
The last UN Climate Conference in Katowice, Poland,
did not achieve new financial commitments but urged countries to deliver on their
pledges.
According to Dr. Samson Samuel Ogallah, Solidaridad Network Senior
Climate Specialist for Africa, until the pledges are converted
into commitments and contributions, it cannot be said that resources have been
attained for climate action.
“We’ve heard countries pledge big amounts but some
of the pledges are never converted into contributions which become a challenge
in the implementation of real action on the ground,” he observed.
The US, for instance, pledged $3billion but managed
to convert $1.5billion during the Obama administration. The other part of the
fund never materialized in the Trump administration.
Other contributed funds also go through
bureaucracies and approval processes with a chunk of the Fund going into
consultancy services, and leaving a pittance for climate action on the grounds.
Concerned about the minimal civil society participation in the design, implementation and evaluation of climate projects, the Pan
African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and Care International held a day’s
workshop on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Week, with a focus on
sustainable financing for climate action.
Executive Director of PACJA, Mithika Mwenda, noted
that “as representatives of the people and communities on the ground, civil
society organizations are very important in any action on climate change,
including finance. The Green Climate Fund must be people-driven,
people-responsive fund which funds things that cannot be financed by the
conventional banks like the World Bank”.
“The GCF is designed to address the needs of people
at the local level, involving small holder farmers, pastoralist communities,
labour movement, women and the youth,” Mithika noted.
He said PACJA is undertaking extensive training and
outreach to demystify the Green Climate Fund as an instrument to support
agriculture, transport and other economic activities.
But Funds available through the GCF and the Global
Environmental Facility (GEF), among other financial mechanisms, are currently
inadequate to meet the global needs for climate solutions.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), African
countries need $3trillion by 2030 to implement their Nationally Determined
Contribution (NDC) targets.
Regional Principal Officer of AfDB, Dr. Olufunso
Somorin, said 75percent of the amount will be leveraged from the private
sector.
He therefore believes CSOs have a role in brokering
increased engagement of the private sector in climate financing.
“The low resourcing of GCF is a concern,” he said. “Attracting
private sector investment is a long-term solution”.
Long term engagement of CSO’s towards strengthening
broader societal support for transformation and increase accountability of
national authorities is critical to achieve GCF paradigms of low-emissions and
climate-resilient economies and societies.
By Kofi Adu Domfeh
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