BOX 4: Supporting enhanced access, capacity, and readiness
Green Climate Fund
The GCF provides ‘readiness and preparatory’ support to enhance the capacity of countries to access GCF
resources, and to strengthen country relationships with the Fund. Readiness funds can be used to cover a
range of activities - including helping countries to identify projects and programmes that advance national
priorities and align with the results areas of the GCF. All developing countries are eligible for readiness
support – and the GCF will aim to provide a floor of 50% of the readiness funding to Small Island Developing
States, Least Developed Countries and African States.
The GCF’s Project Preparation Facility (PPF) will also help accredited entities, especially direct access
entities, to develop high quality GCF funding proposals. The PPF provides support to help cover the costs of
early design work, including feasibility studies and risk assessments.
The GCF’s Enhanced Direct Access pilot programme is designed to enhance access by sub-national,
national and regional public and private entities to the Fund by devolving decision making at country level, to
allow greater involvement and input from stakeholders. It will strengthen countries’ decision-making authority
over resources dedicated to supporting their climate change projects and programmes. The pilot phase will
provide an initial allocation of $200m for around 10 pilots, of which at least four will be implemented in Small
Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries and African States.
NDC Partnership
The purpose of the NDC Partnership is to achieve enhanced cooperation among Parties and to support
developing country partners in successfully implementing their NDCs and related Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) commitments, with the ultimate goal of reaching climate resilient and low carbon growth. The
initiative seeks to respond to developing countries’ needs and priorities and work to ensure a country-driven
perspective. It aims to achieve a new level of alignment between development and climate finance.
Furthermore, the Partnership offers a new, flexible platform for achieving greater coherence of NDC
implementation support through enhanced collaboration, coordination and shared learning. The Partnership
will facilitate implementation by match making and enhancing coordination of implementation support and
action at national level. The partners themselves will deliver on actual implementation.
Climate Finance Readiness Programme
The Climate Finance Readiness Programme aims to provide support to achieve results-oriented,
transformational and efficient use of funds from international climate finance, particularly the GCF. The
programme is funded by a €50 million contribution by the Government of Germany, with co-financing from
USAID and the Czech Republic. It is delivered through multiple partners such as GIZ, KFW, WRI, UNEP,
UNDP, AfDB and the World Bank, assisting countries to implement mitigation and adaptation activities through
better access to climate finance.
Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub
Hosted by the Government of Mauritius, the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub will help developing
countries in Commonwealth countries to build capacity to access multilateral funds, such as the Green Climate
Fund, as well as private sector finance. The Hub will place national climate finance advisers in recipient
countries to help host ministries identify and apply for funding streams. The Hub is supported with a AUD1
million grant from Australia, a GBP1 million grant from the Commonwealth Secretariat, and in-kind support
from Mauritius.
Pacific Energy Conference
In June 2016, the Pacific Energy Conference (PEC) saw donors commit over NZD$1 billion for sustainable
energy projects in the Pacific out to 2024. The conference built on the success of the Pacific Energy Summit in
2013, which kick-started wide-scale international investment in energy in the Pacific, and has resulted in over
US$900 million of energy projects being developed across the region. The commitments made at the PEC
are aligned with recipient countries’ requests, demonstrating the ability for climate finance to be mobilised in
support of countries’ priorities, delivering tangible and effective outcomes. Specific areas of focus include
supporting Polynesia achieve its target of more than 50% renewable energy by 2024, and providing access to
electricity for an estimated 1 million people in Melanesia.