Earth Today | AF approves record US$137 million in new projects

IN A set of milestone decisions at its 44th meeting last week, the Adaptation Fund (AF) Board approved over US$137 million in new projects – a new record that eclipsed the US$100 million mark in a single board meeting for the first time since its operations began 18 years ago.

Further, the board doubled the fund’s country spending caps from US$20 million to US$40 million while also raising the cap on individual single-country projects from US$10 million to US$25 million and raising the cap on regional projects from US$14 million to US$30 million.

The US$137 million in new projects included approvals of 16 full concrete adaptation projects on the ground, which raises the fund’s total to nearly US$1.4 billion committed to about 200 projects across the globe. The board also endorsed another 15 project concepts and pre-concepts, and committed more than $1.2 million in project formulation grants to help develop them further.

Several countries received AF funding for the first time, including Saint Kitts and Nevis, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eswatini,and the Philippines, representing 37 per cent of the total funding approved.

First-time funding

Further, several countries received funding for the first time through the fund’s single-country Locally Led Adaptation (LLA) programme. These included Senegal (also a least developed country), Armenia, Bhutan, and Cote d’Ivoire. The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, a regional implementing entity of the fund, had its first project concept endorsed by the fund and will receive a US$130,200 grant to further develop the proposal in St Kitts and Nevis.

The board also approved US$30 million for the launch of a new regional aggregation programme for channelling LLA grants to a wide range of local actors, including non-accredited entities, to accompany its existing funding windows for single-country LLA programmes. It also continued its innovation in adaptation programme, as well as the Fund’s learning, scale-up and regular regional project grant programmes. All of these grants are offered to countries in addition to its regular country projects and are not subject to the country spending caps.

“These funding decisions are aligned with the mandate the fund received from parties at the UN COP29 climate conference last year that calls for a tripling of outflows from 2022 levels by 2030,” said a April 17 news release from the fund.

“The board will review the new country spending caps after the fund’s current five-year medium-term strategy concludes in 2027 and before the next one begins, with an eye to fulfilling the tripling of outflows by 2030,” it added.

The board has also amended its legal agreements for implementing entities in the administration of project grants to allow entities to apply their rules, policies, standard practices and procedures that should enable them to comply with AF’s policies, guidelines, standards and procedures. These changes, along with the increased country spending caps, will strengthen the fund’s ability to channel more adaptation resources to where they are most needed.

“The board’s approval of such a large work programme reflects the tremendous adaptation needs vulnerable countries are facing and helps put the Adaptation Fund on the path to meet the goals of the NCQG to triple its flows of approved projects. As well, doubling the cap on funding that countries can access to US$40 million is a huge milestone for the fund, and will help us reach more vulnerable communities that are in urgent need of adaptation solutions,” said Mikko Ollikainen, head of the Adaptation Fund.

“I am very pleased with these outcomes, which endorse the great work the fund is already doing in delivering tangible impacts to developing countries, and will help us fund more and larger projects to meet their growing adaptation needs,” he added.