Pacific countries to bolster project pipeline with GCF
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) convened countries and direct access entities in the Pacific for a two-week programming dialogue to address portfolio imbalances and move the region’s climate projects forward.
“The current pipeline of over 114 projects and programmes in the Pacific is very ambitious. I am glad to see most of them included in the Country Programmes which demonstrates very strong ownership by the countries,” said Pa Ousman Jarju, GCF Director of Country Programming.
“There is a diverse pipeline of projects across the Pacific and an increasing interest in Enhanced Direct Access in the region”, stated Ana Tiraa, Cook Islands’ Director of Climate Change.
The dialogue included sessions that highlighted the tools and resources available for direct access entities (DAEs) to help them develop high quality concept notes and funding proposals that are aligned to nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and GCF Country Programmes.
“This programming dialogue with the Pacific is our opportunity to strengthen our access to GCF’s readiness support and to strengthen the project proposals that are already in the pipeline”, said Saiyad Hussain, Fiji Development Bank General Manager for Finance and Administration. “It is our chance to explore opportunities to access resources and tools to develop and write concept notes, and simply to better understand GCF’s requirements and expectations.”
“We welcome GCF’s continued offer to support DAE pipelines in the Pacific,” added Dirk Snyman, Pacific Community (SPC) Climate Finance Adviser.
Lessons from successful initiatives and challenges in the region that require GCF support were also tackled by various working groups.
“With GCF’s support we want to focus and work with governments and industries to better protect the region from climate change induced disasters by strengthening governance and institutional arrangements, providing forecasts and warnings, enhancing hydrometeorological infrastructure, and building capacity,” said Rupeni Mario, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Project Development Specialist.
GCF Executive Director Javier Manzanares expressed support to Pacific Governments and DAEs to provide additional capacity where it is needed “to support the mammoth tasks ahead”.
“There are strong partnerships across the national, international, and multilateral agencies – the region must continue to build on these communities of practice”, remarked Jarju.
GCF and the DAEs in the region will work together on the development of the identified project ideas and concept notes from this programming dialogue to turn them into funding proposals for the GCF-1 programming period, and to ultimately support the Pacific countries to achieve their NDC ambitions. To date, GCF has invested in 16 projects in the Pacific, worth USD 440 million.