GCFDispatch

AroundupofnewsfromtheGreenClimateFund

June2015Issue2

The Green Climate Fund is pleased to share its second GCF Dispatch, a short compilation ofnews related to the development of the Fund. This roundup covers recent activities that havehelped advance the Funds operationalization in the lead up to the Paris Climate ChangeConference. For more frequent updates, follow the Fund on Twitter @GCF_News.

ExecutiveViewpointAddingvaluewithintheinternationalclimate

financearchitecture

The Green Climate Fund was a well-talked about subject at the recent Climate Conference inBonn. The Fund joined UNFCCCs 42ndSession of Subsidiary Bodies to inform Parties aboutthe state of affairs at GCF. In addition to two formal side events that were convened with Boardmembers and their Co-Chairs, GCF organized multiple briefingswith negotiating groups tohelp clarify questions related to the Funds operationalization and first allocation of resources.Parties to the Convention met in Bonn to advance the formulation of the Universal ClimateAgreement that is to be adopted at the 21stSession of the Conference of the Parties (COP). ItsAd-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP)suggestedthat GCFis to act as the main operating entity of the Financial Mechanism for the implementation of[the Paris] agreement, and to strengthen the Fund by ensuring predictable, sustainable and

adequate resources. The twoADP Co-Chairs, Ahmed DJOGHLAF (Algeria) and DanielREIFSNYDER (United States of America), invited GCF to further explain its main featuresat theforthcoming ADP session in August.

Earlier this month at the G-7 Summit in Germany, Heads of state restated their strongcommitment to the Copenhagen Accord to mobilizing USD 100 billion a year by 2020 from awide variety of sources, both public and private. They also reaffirmed their ambition tomakethe Green Climate Fund fully operational in 2015, and a key institution of the future climatefinance architecture.In order to succeed, countries must agree to put in place predictable, long-term flows ofofficial climate finance up until and beyond 2020, including quantities significantly larger thaninitial pledges made to GCF to date. Total official commitments to date are a good start butonly a fraction of what is needed to achieve the planets climate change objective. There isincreasing discussion about how the necessary investments in mitigation and adaptationmight be financed, particularly in developing countries. This dialogue will continue at theUNHigh-Level Event on Climate Changeon 29 June in New York, as well as at theThirdInternational Conference on Financing for Developmenton 13 July in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia, in which the Fund will participate.

Wanted:Highqualityfundingproposals

The Fund has already started receiving voluntary concept notes and project ideas. Accreditedentities and National Designated Authorities (NDAs) can submit funding proposals to GCF atany time, using the funding proposal template available on the Funds website. Accreditedentities are expected to submit their first funding proposals to the Fund during the comingmonths. They may first choose to complete a Concept Note to present their project orprogramme idea, in order to receive early feedback or recommendations. GCFs full FundingProposal Template is to be submitted to: fundingproposal@gcfund.org.

Concept notes and funding proposals should be prepared in close collaboration with therelevant NationalDesignated Authorities and duly consider GCFs Investment and ResultsManagement Frameworks. Funding proposals need to demonstrate how the proposed projectsor programmes will perform against the investment criteria and achieve strategic impactresults.

In order to ensure country leadership, the Funds Board will only consider funding proposalswhich are submitted with a formal letter of no-objection, in accordance with the Funds initialno-objection procedure.

EssentialKnowledgeofGCFELEMENTS01

The Fund has launched its first resource guide to assist NDAs and focal points of recipientcountries in understanding the operational modalities of the Fund. Engaging with the GreenClimate Fund,this first series of GCF ELEMENTS, presents the three key steps to working withthe Fund and sets out the respective roles and responsibilities of NDAs and focal points inrelation to their countries engagement with GCF. The guide also describes the sixfundamental stages that accredited entities follow when submitting funding proposals to theFund.

The information presented in this publication is tailored to the needs of NDAs and focalpoints. The content will be complemented and revised on an ongoing basis. Additional guidesare under development in addition to materials currently available on theGCF website. Yourcomments would be appreciated to help improve the next edition of this publication. Sendfeedback tocountries@gcfund.org.

NextregionalworkshopsforNDAsinFijiandEgypt

Almost130developingcountrieshavenowestablishedtheirNDA or focal point for GCF.The Funds allocation framework provides for adequate levels of readiness funding todeveloping countries on an ongoing basis, and this stream of funding continues to beimplemented according to the choices made by NDAs. Around 70 readiness requests havebeen received, 20 of which are currently being processed by the Fund. Grant agreements havebeen issued to Ethiopia, Togo, Dominican Republic and Micronesia. At least 50 percent of thetotal will be delivered to particularly vulnerable countries, including small island developingstates (SIDS), least developed countries (LDCs) and African states.

In order to enable as many NDAs as possible to actively engage in the Funds ongoing multi-stakeholder dialogue, GCF will convene its nextregionalworkshopsforNDAs in the Pacificregion (27 29 July in Nadi, Fiji), and in the Africa and Middle East region (5 11 September inAlexandria, Egypt). Further details will be communicated to NDAs and focal points in duecourse.

Meanwhile, the Funds network of entities is growing fast. To date,morethan50applicantshave submitted their request for accreditation, including the7 entitiesthat havealready been accredited, as well as at least13entitiesthatwillbeconsideredforaccreditationbytheBoardatitstenthmeetingin July. Applications for accreditationcontinue on an ongoing basis through the Fundsonline accreditation system.

B.10inSongdo

Final preparations are under way for the tenth meeting of the Board next month at GCFHeadquarters in Songdo. Key agenda items include discussions on Additional Modalities that

Further Enhance Direct Access, the Funds Risk Management Methodology, and the Level ofConcessional Terms for the Public Sector.Documents for the meeting that have not yet beenmade available will be published shortly.

Sixbillionandcounting

A significant portion of pledges to the Fund have already been converted into contributionagreements: in May, the signature of Japan's contribution marked a turning point, as the Fundbecame effective with more than 50 percent of total pledges signed into actual agreements.This means the Fund canbegintoallocateresourcestoclimatesensitiveprojectsandprogrammesindevelopingcountries. The Funds Board will likely consider some initialprojects later this year, ahead of COP 21 in Paris.It is essential that new and additional resources continue to be pledged to the Fund, especiallyin the run-up to COP 21. Scale is essential for GCF to deliver on its ambitious mandate thiscan include resources from public sources as well as from private, philanthropic and potentialalternative sources. GCFs initial resource mobilization period is 2015-2018, and the Fundaccepts new pledges on an ongoing basis. The lead countries that made pledges to the Fundin 2014 were joined earlier this month by Malta, increasing the total number of contributingcountries to 34.Close to USD 6 billion equivalent have been signed in contributions to date, i.e. approx. 60percent of the USD 10 billion equivalent that GCF received in pledges in 2014. The objective isto converttheremaining40percentmorethanUSD4billion into contributionagreements within one year, so that, by COP 21, all pledges made in 2014 will have beensigned into contributions.

You can find GCF's current key messages in the 3-Minute Brief about the Fund that waspresented to negotiators at the recent Bonn Climate Conference.

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