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Access to finance remains essential for vulnerable African countries to take climate action.
Ghana, for example, needs investments of $ 22.6 billion to implement measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
While countries are expected to commit national resources to the implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures to climate change, the fight against the climate scourge will require considerable international support to effectively implement the contributions determined at the level of climate change. national (CDN).
NDCs are efforts each country makes to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has been established as a key means of mobilizing financial resources to meet the challenge of climate change.
Enabled in 2010, the GCF acts as a financial mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to support developing country efforts to address the challenge of climate change.
Support to developing countries consists of facilitating the reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions and their adaptation to climate change.
Until now, developed countries have committed to providing a current target of 100 billion dollars by 2020.
The recent United Nations Climate Conference in Katowice, Poland, did not result in new financial commitments, but urged countries to keep their promises.
According to Samson Samuel Ogallah, Principal Climate Specialist of the Solidaridad Network for Africa, until commitments are converted into pledges and contributions, it can not be said that resources have been reached for the project. action against climate change.
"We have heard that countries are pledging large sums of money, but some of these promises are never converted into contributions, which becomes a challenge for the implementation of concrete actions on the ground," he said. he observes.
The United States, for example, pledged $ 3 billion, but managed to convert $ 1.5 billion under the Obama administration. The other part of the fund never materialized in the Trump administration.
Other funds also flow through bureaucracies and approval processes, with part of the fund then being consulted and leaving a paltry sum for climate action in the field.
Concerned about the minimal involvement of civil society in the design, implementation and evaluation of climate projects, the Pan-African Alliance for Justice and Justice (PACJA) and Care International organized a workshop day on the sidelines of the African Climate Week, focused on sustainable financing climate action.
Mithika Mwenda, Executive Director of PACJA, said that "as representatives of the people and communities on the ground, civil society organizations play a very important role in any action to combat climate change, including finance. The Green Climate Fund must be a people-centered, people-centered fund that funds activities that can not be financed by conventional banks such as the World Bank. "
The Accra Dialogue, in which 15 African countries participated, recognized that the appropriate and broader engagement of stakeholders in the Global Cooperation Fund processes could help most African countries to develop a proposal that could strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities and to bring about a paradigm shift in the whole process.
"The GCF is designed to meet the needs of people at the local level, involving smallholder farmers, pastoral communities, the labor movement, women and youth," said Mithika.
He added that the PACJA is undertaking extensive training and awareness activities to demystify the Green Climate Fund as an instrument of support for agriculture, transportation and education. other economic activities.
However, funds available through the GCF and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), among other financial mechanisms, are currently insufficient to meet global climate solutions needs.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), African countries need $ 3 trillion by 2030 to implement their nationally determined contribution (NDC) targets.
Mr. Olufunso Somorin, AfDB Senior Regional Manager, said that 75% of this amount would come from the private sector.
He therefore believes that CSOs have a role to play in negotiating increased private sector engagement in climate finance.
"The weak resources of GCF are a source of concern," he said. "Attracting private sector investment is a long-term solution."
It is essential that CSOs commit themselves in the long term to strengthening the support of society for transformation and to increase the accountability of national authorities to implement paradigms of the global cooperation framework that advocate for economies and low-emission, climate-resilient companies.
By Kofi Adu Domfeh
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