23 October 2014
Climate Finance for Global Impact
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The GEF is helping to catalyze substantial funding from the private sector, national governments and other partners that would otherwise not have occurred.

GEF: US$3 Billion Climate Finance for Global Impact

Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. It is no longer a threat; it is already a reality. Atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations continue to increase at a rapid pace, and will exceed 400 ppm in the very near term. In the absence of urgent, decisive action, nations will face unprecedented challenges such as longer and more intense heat waves and severe droughts, more frequent damaging storms, declining ocean health due to acidification, and reduced crop yields undermining food security. The choices that governments, companies and private citizens are making now will have vast implications for the prospects for long-term sustainable development.

The GEF is committed to support enhanced action and ambition. The newly completed sixth replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund (GEF-6), together with our dedicated climate adaptation funds, will enable the GEF to make up to US$3 billion available for climate finance in the next four years, with an expected US$30 billion being leveraged from other sources.

The GEF supports climate change initiatives in countries across a broad spectrum of action areas. A total of US$910 million was allocated to individual countries to support national climate change mitigation policies and strategies, enhanced renewable energy supply, increased energy efficiency, including sustainable transport and urban design, expansion of climate smart agriculture, and work to reduce short-lived climate forcers. The GEF has also allocated US$225 million to support UNFCCC-related reporting and assessments, including Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, and to help integrate their findings into national policy planning and implementation. In addition, the GEF expects to program up to US$1.4 billion towards enhanced resilience, adaptation and disaster risk reduction.

Building on the role of the GEF as a financial mechanism for many other Conventions, substantial climate-related finance is being directed at the sustainable management of forests, water, land and soils. During the next four years, the GEF will provide US$700 million to developing countries to support sustainable management of all types of forests, thereby generating multiple benefits in climate change mitigation, biodiversity and livelihoods. Similarly, the GEF will provide US$430 million of additional funding to prevent land degradation that can help enhance carbon sequestration, strengthen resilience and improve livelihoods.

Finally, in the next four years the GEF will be providing dedicated financing for several high-impact initiatives: (i) US$100 million for a sustainable cities program to deliver global environmental benefits with local action; (ii) US$45 million for an integrated approach to eliminate deforestation from commodity supply chains; and (iii) US$110 million to improve food security, strengthen resilience and enhance carbon sequestration in Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, the GEF will be making available US$110 million for dedicated non-grant pilot funding to demonstrate the application of different financial instruments to fight climate change and other forms of environmental degradation mainly through private sector action.

INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE

The climate finance landscape is rapidly evolving. Building on our past experience of over two decades of effective climate financing to developing countries, the GEF is helping to catalyze substantial funding from the private sector, national governments and other partners that would otherwise not have occurred. Seeking to produce maximum impact from its investments now and into the future, the GEF is proactively looking for enhanced complementarity and robust synergies with other climate finance players. Through its work on transforming policy and regulatory environment, strengthening institutional capacity, building multi-stakeholder alliances, and de-risking partner investments, together with exploring synergies across its many lines of climate-related financing, the GEF will continue to play a key role in demonstrating innovative approaches and instruments that can be scaled up by other players, including the Green Climate Fund as it becomes operational.

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