Cuba is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (since 1994), the Kyoto Protocol (2002) and the Paris Agreement (January 2017). 

In October 2007, the Council of Ministers discussed climate change for the first time and approved a program that prioritized adaptation in the economic and social sectors, focused on the coastal zone and linked to disaster reduction. 

In 2015, under the coordination of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, a process was begun to update the documents already approved by the Council of Ministers for tackling climate change. The same year, Cuba appointed the Deputy Minister of CITMA as National Designated Authority to the Green Climate Fund.  

At the same time, Cuba submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, which should be considered as the basis of the national projects, together with the Guidelines to Confront Climate Change and its Plan of Action, which were submitted to the Economic and Financial Commission of the Cuban Council of Ministers in January 2016. Guideline No.11 states: 

"To manage and use the available international financial resources, both from global and regional climate funds, and from bilateral sources; To execute the investments, projects and actions that derive from each one of these Guidelines and their set stipulations ". 

Despite these efforts, the work at national level still faces several barriers and limitations, including: 

• Poor knowledge of the Green Climate Fund functioning, and, in general, of the channels and forms of application to climate finance and the opportunities it offers. 
• Very limited availability of trained human resources in this area. 
• The organizational structures, and the legal instruments that make feasible, the use of these funds are not established. 

The general objective of this project is the creation and strengthening of Cuba’s institutional capacities to access and engage with the Green Climate Fund.  

This support will focus on the first two GCF Readiness Outcomes aimed to: 

1. Strengthening the NDA. The NDA will be strengthened through the capacity building, processes and the provision of equipment essential to fulfill its role, including the leadership and joint work that it must develop with other national agencies and institutions. 
2. Creating a strategic framework for the collaboration of the NDA with other ministries, civil society and national stakeholders and its engagement with the GCF. Concerning this objective, the NDA will develop a GCF Country Program, including a plan for its work with the Fund and the identification of opportunities to engage new actors that may be involved in climate finance issues in the country.