The Green Climate Fund has promised developing nations it will ramp up efforts to help them tackle climate challenges as they strive to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, approving $879 million in backing for 15 new projects around the world.

Photo taken on July 22, 2020 shows green facades of the MA 48 headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The facades of the MA 48 headquarters were lined with green plants, which had positive effects including microclimate, protection of the building fabric from driving rain and dirt deposits, noise protection, and cooling capacity. Photo: Xinhua

At a four-day virtual board meeting ending late Friday, the fund added Afghanistan and Sudan to a list of more than 100 countries receiving a total of $6.2 billion to reduce planet-heating emissions and enhance climate resilience.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up under UN climate talks in 2010 to help developing nations tackle global warming, and started allocating money in 2015.

Executive Director Yannick Glemarec said the fund had "a key role to play to maintain climate ambition in the era of COVID-19" and would aim to improve the speed and efficiency of its response to developing country needs.

Board cochair Nauman Bashir Bhatti, from Pakistan, said climate finance would be crucial for recovery from the pandemic and the fund needed to increase support "even during these difficult times."

Those promises came as small island states criticized the pace and size of GCF assistance, saying they were now struggling with the economic blow from the pandemic on top of climate change impacts such as rising seas and stronger storms.

Fiji's UN Ambassador Satyendra Prasad said COVID-19 risked worsening the already high debt burden of small island nations, as tourism dived.

"The importance of the [GCF]... in accelerating transformative climate action in this present decade cannot be understated," he added.

He told Reuters island nations were struggling to access other sources of finance and urged the GCF to boost aid to help them prepare project proposals and to release funding for approved projects faster.

The Alliance of Small Island States said its members represented less than 10 percent of total funding requests.

The GCF approved three new projects for island nations on Friday, including strengthening buildings to withstand hurricanes in Antigua and Barbuda, and installing solar power systems on farmland on Fiji's Ovalau island.

It also gave the green light to payments rewarding reductions in deforestation in Colombia and Indonesia between 2014 and 2016. But more than 80 green groups issued an open letter ahead of the meeting opposing such funding.

They said deforestation had since spiked and countries should not be rewarded for "paper reductions" in carbon emissions calculated from favorable baselines.

Liane Schalatek, who leads climate finance work for the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, said the fund should take a hard look at whether the forest emission reductions it is paying for would be permanent. It should also ensure the funding protects and benefits forest communities and indigenous people, she told Reuters.

Other new projects included one for zero-deforestation cocoa production in Cote d'Ivoire,  providing rural villages in Senegal and Afghanistan with solar mini-grids, and conserving biodiversity on Indian Ocean islands. 

The fund said initiatives like these would create jobs and support a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
Newspaper headline: Budget allocated to create jobs, offer support