E Co’s Head of Consulting, Beverley Salmon, and Principal consultant, Marijan Gajsak have given us their on-the-ground insights for the third and final day, having been in attendance at this last board meeting of 2023.
Key takeaways
On readiness
On the presentation of Readiness, the Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) Executive Director Mafalda Duarte outlined the increased support for Direct Access Entities (DAEs), equating to USD $1M, per entity, over the four-year period. However, there was still a feeling from the room that the DAEs cannot be expected to have the same resources and capacity as the AEs and this needs to be better understood and reflected in the process going forward.
On replenishment
On replenishment pledges:
- 25 countries have pledged towards replenishment;
- Five more have expressed intention to pledge;
- Three countries have doubled their pledges;
- Nine have increased their pledges by 50% or more.
There were also calls for more funding pledges and greater values if the GCF was going to have significant impact on the climate crisis.
In the feedback of contributors there was an appreciation of what makes the GCF unique, namely partnerships, flexibility, and capacity development & technical assistance. However, some frequently shared issues by contributors amounted to:
- The accreditation process;
- Simplification;
- Regional outreach (not through establishing a bureaucratic footprint, but through outreach and collaboration);
- The need to address the sustainability of the pool (not to wait for the next cycle but to assess the current model which is not sustainable);
- Mobilisation of the private sector is required;
- New technology adoption – the GCF should be at the forefront of AI and digital innovation as well as better inclusion of innovative finance mechanisms such as blended finance, and carbon markets, amongst others.
Curious about more frequently-shared GCF access issues? Download GCF insight #24
The most recent report in our GCF insight series explores five common challenges that affect GCF stakeholders within funding access and project development – challenges relating to such things as the mobilisation of the private sector or lacking capacity.
Read and download your own copy of GCF insight #24 here.
On accreditation
At GCF B.37, three organisations received accreditation:
- The CARICOM Development Fund;
- The FSM Development Bank;
- And SK Securities.
Both the accreditations and reaccreditations were universally adopted, however, there were some considerations raised. Firstly, there was a call from the CSO AO for better scrutiny and the holding to account of AEs who have fossil fuel investments.
Secondly, as the GCF is currently reviewing the accreditation process and looking to revise the number of years required before applying for reaccreditation – and so to add a grace of three years for current AEs – there was a call to remove the need for re-accreditation in this meeting. However, there was also a subsequent acknowledgement that the current processes should be maintained – to the relief of those entities who have been working on their re-accreditation proposals!