An End of Year Message from GCF

Dear GCF partners,
As we reach the end of this difficult year, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to all our partners for your contributions in 2020. The Green Climate Fund is a partnership organization, and without you we cannot achieve our ambitious mandate to support global action against climate change.

2020 has been a traumatic and unprecedented year for the world and for the GCF family. The GCF Secretariat suffered the tragic death of our colleague Leo Paat from COVID-19, a loss that continues to weigh heavy in our hearts. Many colleagues have been separated from family and friends and have adapted to new ways of working in this unique era.

Despite the circumstances, the Green Climate Fund intensified its efforts to maintain climate ambition in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have grown our portfolio by a record amount to reach over USD 7 billion in GCF resources allocated to 117 countries. More than 70% of our projects are under implementation and GCF has now disbursed over USD 1.4 billion. We have also been able to respond rapidly and flexibly to help developing countries and project partners to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We deepened our organizational development process, codifying, streamlining, and automating our business processes to facilitate access to GCF resources. We strengthened our human resource management systems to attract and nurture the diversity of talents required to achieve our mandate. We continued our fund mobilization efforts. As of today, 33 contributors pledged USD 10 billion for GCF-1 (2020-2023) and 96% of these pledges are already confirmed.

2021 will see the delayed COP26 meeting, which will be a crucial marker for climate progress. There are some encouraging signs, with a growing number of countries having adopted net zero emission policies. But much more is needed. We must increase the flow of climate finance by investing in low-emission, climate-resilient action that can also help developing countries’ economies to recover from the impact of COVID-19.

Our newly updated Strategic Plan reflects GCF’s commitment to increasing its climate impact, whilst maintaining a balance between adaptation and mitigation measures and ensuring strong country ownership and development co-benefits for our climate activities. We expect our portfolio to reach close to $ 10 billion by the end of 2021. We retain our determination to provide at least 50% of our adaptation finance to the most vulnerable countries, LDCs, SIDS, and African States. We will increase the share of funding that is allocated via direct access institutions that are closest to the ground in developing countries. And we will use our funds to catalyze private sector investment at scale, identifying key areas where GCF can help steer a turning point towards global financial transformation. 

I wish you all a peaceful holiday and a happy new year. I look forward to working with you again in 2021, as we strive for a low-emission, climate-resilient world.

Yours,
Yannick Glemarec,
Executive Director