At its twenty-third meeting in July (B.23), the Board of the Green Climate Fund approved GCF’s first climate action project in Timor-Leste, FP109: Safeguarding rural communities and their physical assets from climate induced disasters.

Developed with the the National Directorate for Climate Change, the country’s National Designated Authority (NDA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the project will climate-proof small-scale infrastructure in six municipalities and help strengthen the resilience of rural communities to climate change induced disasters.

“The impact of climate change resulting from hazards such as inundation, landslides, drought, and sea level rise are a threat to our economy, social infrastructure, food security, and sustainable ecosystems,” said Demetrio do Amaral del Carvalho, Secretary of State for the Environment at Timor-Leste’s 3rd National Climate Change Conference.

In the months leading up to the country’s climate change conference and to B.23, GCF and the Government of Timor-Leste have been working closely on several initiatives to help the country realise their climate ambitions, including co-leading with the NDA a technical workshop for stakeholders on to developing high-quality climate action project proposals and improving access to GCF resources.

“The Government of Timor-Leste continues its efforts towards a low-carbon development path aligned with the Paris Agreement…however, to achieve this, we need the support of the UNFCCC’s financial mechanisms such as the Global Environment Facility, Adaptation Fund, and the Green Climate Fund,” Carvalho added.

Early this year, Timor-Leste submitted its first GCF country programme which outlines their climate strategy and priority projects. The country has also benefited from GCF’s Readiness funding which they will use to strengthen the development of climate projects in their 2020 pipeline.