Earth Today | Adaptation Fund caps accomplished year with eye to promising 2023

THE ADAPTATION Fund has closed another successful year, providing tangible results for climate-vulnerable countries while raising more than US$230 million in new pledges and contributions at the United Nations climate change conference (COP27), held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, last month.

The fourth review of the Fund was concluded at COP27, in which parties again recognised its role as an essential channel for supporting adaptation action and a pioneer of direct access to adaptation finance, while funding full costs of concrete adaptation projects in developing countries.

The review cited its comparative advantages in speed of project approval, strategic engagement of regional and local stakeholders, efficiency of institutional arrangements, enhancement of country ownership, and climate finance readiness.

While recognising the Fund’s central role in the climate finance architecture, parties also furthered the development of a new clean market mechanism for adaptation.

CONTINUING SIGNALS

As continuing signals of the broad trust earned by the Fund for its effective and nimble support on the ground for the most vulnerable countries and the momentum garnered for its 15th anniversary in operations, celebrated at the conference, the new pledges included several first-time contributors and multiyear pledges.

While the Fund continues to face record demand for adaptation actions, with an active pipeline of about US$380 million in projects that have not yet been funded, it will build on these pledges to enhance its financial sustainability.

COP27 came fresh on the heels of key board decisions in October that adopted the Fund’s new five-year strategy for 2023-2027 that will further build on its strategic pillars of ‘action’, ‘innovation’, and ‘learning and sharing’, with increased ambition and linkages, and additional cross-cutting areas of locally led adaptation and scaling up Fund actions to help meet the adaptation needs of vulnerable countries.

The board also approved a new resource mobilisation strategy and action plan that aim to further grow and diversify its funding sources to help address the need for more predictable funding. This will include targeting expanded contributions from national and subnational governments, and opportunities with foundations and the private sector.

Among other things, it also hosted its first in-person, large-scale seminar, following the peak years of the COVID-19 pandemic, in September in Washington, DC, when it welcomed representatives from its 34 direct access national implementing partners from around the world to share experiences, successes and lessons learned in furthering country ownership in adaptation and navigating the accreditation and project development processes, as well as several new funding windows that have been launched by the Fund over the last few years in areas such as innovation, learning, project scale-up, and enhanced direct access. The five-day seminar included a site visit to a natural stream restoration project in the area.

SCALED-UP GRANTS

Often, Adaptation Fund projects are the first concrete adaptation projects being carried out in many places. With now nearly US$1 billion committed to 140 projects on the ground, building the resilience of over 38 million beneficiaries, its focus on local ownership, institutional capacity building and knowledge sharing supports scaling up or replicating projects.

The Fund’s Scale-Up Grants window is helping implementing partners such as in Rwanda develop expanded proposals based on their experience implementing successful Fund projects.

“Even as recent gap reports show rising concerns with climate risks and nearly 20 per cent of the Fund’s portfolio is committed to disaster risk-reduction and early-warning systems, an exciting 2023 awaits as the fund will begin implementing its new strategy to build on the many achievements of its last five-year strategy, while further optimising the Fund’s value and impact to create positive change,” said a release from the Fund.

“It will strengthen synergies with other adaptation funders, enhance access to climate finance and build long-term adaptation capacities, while advancing gender equality and empowering the most vulnerable communities as agents of change,” it added.