B.27/06: Updated Strategic Plan for the GCF for 2020 – 2023

The Board, having considered document GCF/B.27/21 titled “Updated Strategic Plan for the Green Climate Fund: 2020-2023”:

  1. Endorses the updated Strategic Plan for the Green Climate Fund: 2020-2023, which is a living document, as set out in annex VI as the updated GCF Strategic Plan to guide the Board in addressing policy gaps and programming the GCF resources of the first replenishment period between 2020 and 2023 and to invest the GCF resources in paradigm-shifting climate actions in a country-driven manner;
  2. Recalls the outcomes of the initial resource mobilization period;
  3. Requests the Secretariat, under the Co-Chairs’ guidance, to update the Board’s workplan for 2020-2023 to reflect the updated Strategic Plan’s objectives and priorities, and to present it to the Board at the first meeting of 2021;
  4. Reaffirms that the implementation of the updated Strategic Plan will be guided by the Governing Instrument for the GCF, including the objectives and guiding principles laid out therein;
  5. Notes that the updated Strategic Plan will guide the Board’s deliberations on issues mandated in its four-year workplan, and to support developing countries in translating their nationally determined contributions, adaptation communications, national adaptation plans and long-term national strategies into investment strategies and project pipelines informed by the goals in the Paris Agreement, without prejudice to the outcomes of the Board deliberations;
  6. Recalls decision B.12/20, including paragraph (h), and decision B.13/10, paragraph (e), and confirms that GCF, as an operating entity of the Financial Mechanism of the Convention, serves the Paris Agreement;
  7. Requests the committees, panels and groups of the Board to include the relevant actions outlined in the updated Strategic Plan in their respective deliberations and work programmes, as appropriate, throughout the first replenishment period;
  8. Agrees that the resource allocation parameters for the GCF first replenishment programming period, for mitigation, adaptation and the private sector, will continue to be based on decision B.05/05;
  9. Further agrees that the GCF first replenishment programming period will strive to achieve greater impact for developing countries compared with the initial resource mobilization period, while strengthening country ownership and capacity to identify, design and implement projects and programmes, and in this regard agrees the following parameters and guidelines for the allocation of resources during the GCF first replenishment period
    1. Maintaining the 50:50 balance of adaptation and mitigation funding over time while seeking to deliver portfolio-level mitigation and adaptation outcomes that exceed average initial resource mobilization outcomes;
    2. Maintaining a minimum allocation floor of fifty per cent of adaptation funding, to be provided to developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, including small island developing States, least developed countries and African States, taking into account their urgent and immediate needs, while aiming to build on initial resource mobilization outcomes. The Board will aim for appropriate geographical balance;
    3. Supporting developing countries mitigation activities that contribute to respond to the urgency of action to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C;
    4. Significantly increase funding channelled through direct access entities relative to the initial resource mobilization;
    5. Maximize engagement with the private sector, including micro, small and mediumsized enterprises, ensuring the allocation to the Private Sector Facility exceeds 20 per cent; and
    6. Significantly increase mobilized private sector finance at the portfolio level relative to the initial resource mobilization;
  10. Reaffirms that allocation parameters should be determined in grant equivalents;
  11. Requests the Secretariat to update the allocation parameters and portfolio targets under the GCF initial investment framework to reflect GCF first replenishment allocation parameters and portfolio targets as set out in paragraph (i) of this decision, in line with decision B.07/06, paragraph (e);
  12.  Aims to programme 40 per cent of available resources by the midpoint of the GCF first replenishment and 95 per cent by end 2023;
  13. Requests the Secretariat to report on progress on the updated Strategic Plan at the first Board meeting of each year from 2021;
  14. Encourages the Secretariat to enhance efforts to improve speed, predictability, access, impact, quality, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency;
  15.  Also encourages contributing countries to confirm their pledges to GCF in the form of fully executed contribution agreements/arrangements as soon as possible; and
  16. Decides to review the GCF Strategic Plan ahead of each replenishment process with a view to revising the strategic vision, if and as needed, and to update the strategic objectives and priorities for the coming replenishment cycle, taking into account evolving priorities, including guidance from the Conference of the Parties, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, and relevant reports from the Independent Evaluation Unit.