GCF committed to supporting Indigenous Peoples’ access to climate finance

At COP30 in Belem, Brazil, GCF Head of Sustainability and Inclusion, Eleni Kyrou, has pledged GCF’s commitment to increasing access to climate finance for Indigenous Peoples and undertaken to partner with The Tenure Facility on a proposal to finance Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in nine countries across the Amazon. Speaking at the event, Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ Direct Access to Climate Finance, on 12 November, she emphasised that GCF’s Indigenous Peoples Policy fosters full respect, promotion, and safeguarding of Indigenous Peoples and their rights, recognising them as valuable partners in climate. She acknowledged the need to improve direct access to climate finance for Indigenous Peoples. 

At the event, The Tenure Facility, which was accredited as a GCF project partner (Accredited Entity) earlier this year, announced its intention to bring a proposal to GCF that would see the Fund step in to join forces with the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) of the UK on the Amazon Monitoring and Climate Action Trust (AMCAT). The AMCAT programme is, to date, an entirely UK-funded initiative aimed at strengthening tenure security and territorial governance for IPLCs across the Amazon Basin. It is actively seeking to collaborate and pool resources with other donors to maximise impact.

Kyrou’s speech emphasised the need for a more structured approach to providing direct access to climate finance for Indigenous Peoples, including support through the Readiness Programme and progressive accreditation of Indigenous-led funds and other Indigenous Peoples' entities with the Fund. She expressed an intention to move beyond attention solely to safeguards and compliance, towards engaging and empowering Indigenous Peoples in our collective climate action. She called for Indigenous Peoples organisations to work together with GCF in designing a framework for consideration by the GCF Board in 2026.