Earth Today | Adaptation Fund Board clears US$125m-plus in new climate projects for the developing world

THE ADAPTATION Fund Board recently concluded its 45th meeting in Bonn, Germany, clearing more than US$125 million in new adaptation projects that strengthen resilience in the most vulnerable countries.

Eighteen new projects and programmes were cleared, including several under the Fund’s Direct Access, Locally Led Adaptation and Innovation windows – expanding country ownership and on-the-ground impact. With these approvals, the Fund surpassed 200 approved projects, totalling more than US$1.5 billion committed to date.

Last week’s funding decisions align well with the call from COP29 for a tripling of the Fund’s outflows from 2022 levels by 2030. With these new approvals, the Fund surpassed the milestone of 200 projects approved since it launched its operations 18 years ago. The Fund has committed more than US$1.5 billion to 217 projects to date.

The board also made significant progress in transitioning the Fund toward fully serving the Paris Agreement, reviewing and refining draft terms for trustee and secretariat services that will help pave a smoother path toward exclusively serving the Paris Agreement.

KEY OUTCOMES

Other key outcomes included the approval of a revised Strategic Results Framework to strengthen monitoring and evaluation, and the go ahead to develop an option for a new more streamlined reaccreditation process.

“The board accomplished a great deal in advancing the work and reach of the Adaptation Fund to support the most vulnerable in building resilience to climate change, surpassing a big milestone to date of over 200 projects approved,” said Washington Zhakata, vice chair of the board who presided over the meeting as chair in the absence of current chair, Antonio Navarra.

“We not only took steps toward strengthening the Fund’s systems in monitoring and evaluation, reaccreditation, and serving the Paris Agreement, but advanced a large number of concrete actions for vulnerable communities including clearing 18 new adaptation projects and endorsing another 18 in the pipeline – all of which will serve the Fund’s mission and stakeholders well toward reaching its mandate to triple funding outflows by 2030,” he added.

“It was great to see the Board achieve a lot in this meeting, setting the stage for the Adaptation Fund’s eventual transition to exclusively serve the Paris Agreement, and clearing more than US$125 million in new projects that further the Fund’s concrete work on the ground for the vulnerable – including empowering local and country ownership through new actions in Direct Access, Locally Led Adaptation, and Innovation,” noted Mikko Ollikainen, head of the Adaptation Fund.