The Adaptation Fund (AF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) have announced the launch of a joint framework to assist developing countries with expanding successful climate adaptation projects into larger-scale investments.
The AF-GCF Scaling-Up Framework Operational Guidance, which was unveiled at COP31, builds on the two funds’ complimentary roles, and sets out how they plan to work together to identify completed or advanced-stage Adaptation Fund projects.
Under the framework, selected projects can be developed into larger investments for potential Green Climate Fund financing. All projects will remain subject to national prioritisation and the established review and each fund’s established review and approval processes.
‘Resilience journey’
“An Adaptation Fund project is often where a country’s resilience journey begins, and where it starts to grow,” commented Mikko Ollikainen, head of the Adaptation Fund. “Our direct access model strengthens the institutions that can access climate finance and sustain it.
“We back innovative approaches and help prove what works. Adaptation Fund projects that have gone on to receive GCF financing have attracted an average of $4 for every $1 invested. In half of these cases, the same partner has scaled up the project. The Framework gives proven projects a clearer path to scale, connecting them to larger investment and helping meet the high demand for adaptation finance.”
As the two groups said in a statement, the framework builds on the experience of both in working together to scale up country-led adaptation projects, and supports both funds’ aim to ‘strengthen complementarity and coherence across the climate finance architecture’.
‘Scale and urgency’
“Countries need adaptation finance that matches the scale and urgency of the climate crisis,” added Mafalda Duarte, executive director of the Green Climate Fund. “This joint framework shows how GCF and AF are responding to that challenge.
“The Framework lets proven, country-led solutions supported by the Adaptation Fund grow into larger investments, without countries having to start from scratch. It also shows how the Green Climate Fund wants to work across the climate finance system, so that every dollar goes further and reaches people faster.” Read more here and here.
