Climate Change Resilience
The Adaptation Fund (AF) set up under the Kyoto Protocol shares proceeds from the Clean Development Mechanism and can be monetized and used for adaption in vulnerable countries.
The role of the Adaptation Fund Board, currently co-located with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is to approve and dispense resources to accredited national and multilateral institutions for adaptation. Over the past two years, the AF has dedicated more than US$115 million to increase climate resilience in 18 countries.
Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTS) have vigorously pushed for direct country access to the AF within the United Nations Framework of Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) negotiations. Within the context of the AF this has been approved through the mechanism of National Implementing Entities (NIE), but the requirements for accreditation are not trivial.
Early this year the FCCC and the AF secretariats convened a meeting in Samoa to inform the region on the NIE accreditation requirements, with participation from 13 Pacific Island Countries and Territories. The meeting clearly highlighted the difficulties but also provided much needed support in terms of information and technical resources available.
Pictured: Pacific Island Countries and Territories representatives engaged at the Adaptation Financing discussion during the Pacific Islands Climate Change Focal Points and Experts Consultation Meeting
There were detailed sessions on the different stages of the accreditation process, the various requirements that need to be demonstrated by the applicant, as well as very helpful interaction with the staff from the two secretariats and other invited experts. South-South cooperation was also fostered with the presence of one of the Caribbean NIEs, from Belize.
SPREP is in the process of seeking accreditation as a Regional Implementing Entity, which will have similar status to the MIEs. This process will hopefully be completed by June this year, but the road ahead, if accreditation is given, will not be painless.
Clearly there will still be a number of obstacles to first of all maintain a robust enough system at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to retain the trust of the AF and of Members, to attract further donors, and finally a system that actually delivers resources on the ground in Pacific Island Countries' communities. SPREP is ready and willing to accept this challenge.
The workshop was attended by Cook Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, FSM, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, as well as representatives from regional and local organisations.
For more information contact Mr Espen Ronneberg at [email protected]