Earth Today | New Adaptation Fund approvals get thumbs up
Published:Thursday | April 21, 2022 | 12:07 AM
PLAYERS FROM the climate change and development sectors have welcomed news of the Adaptation Fund (AF) Board’s approval of US$34.37 million in new adaptation projects for the developing world.
This comes just ahead of this year’s Earth Day celebrations tomorrow, under the theme ‘Invest in our Planet’, which also calls attention to the urgent need for climate action.
“The AF’s approval of US$34.37 million is good news; it is a step in the right direction as we celebrate Earth Day and its theme ‘Invest in our Planet. It is good news, too, because it presents opportunities for Caribbean countries like Jamaica to get direct access to funds to address the climate impacts we are experiencing,” noted Indi Mclymont Lafayette, a long-time climate justice advocate and head of Change Communications.
“The AF has a good history of funding climate adaptation in the Caribbean and it is good to see that being continued with them funding a US$10 million project in Trinidad as well as fast-tracking the accreditation of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre,” she added.
Eleanor Jones, who heads the consultancy firm Environmental Solutions Limited, also approved.
“The Adaptation Fund provides an opportunity for accessing investment funds to help to strengthen the adaptation needs which relate to all aspects of our societies, whether we are dealing with our coastline in terms of protection against climate invasion or interior areas where we have watersheds that need to be protected from extreme rainfall events, whether they be floods or droughts,” she said.
IN NEED OF ATTENTION
“At the same time, our urban areas are growing and they are in dire need of attention in all the facets, from air quality to the efficient supply of water for sanitation purposes. We need to be thinking of greening our urban areas and to make them smart cities, smart towns to build climate resilience. We focus on emissions a lot, but adaptation is badly needed for us as small-island developing states of the Caribbean and so adaptation funds are critical,” she added.
In addition to the new project approvals, done at the fund’s 38th board meeting earlier this month, progress was also made on its next five-year medium-term strategy (MTS) and developing guidance for the optional co-financing of projects.
According to information out of the AF, the next MTS is to build on the strategic framework and achievements of the first while “adding further enhancements by proposing strategic updates and adjustments aimed at consolidating the fund’s success and comparative advantage and optimising its impact”.
“We have seen Adaptation Fund projects scaled up in nearly 20 instances to date, and governments or other organisations sometimes add funding to projects, which can lead to transformative impacts for climate-vulnerable communities,” noted Mikko Ollikainen, head of the Adaptation Fund, in an April 14 news release.
“I was also pleased to see the board approve not only several concrete adaptation projects, but also advance key strategic elements, such as Enhanced Direct Access and new innovation grants which is a growing area of the fund that is aimed at taking innovation in adaptation a step further to try to help create additional proven models to help address the urgency of climate change,” he added.
The Adaptation Fund has, since 2010, committed nearly US$912 million for climate change adaptation and resilience projects and programmes, including in Jamaica.