The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board has approved major changes to its accreditation framework to streamline access to climate finance at its 31st Board meeting, which concluded today. The changes will enhance and accelerate access to finance by developing countries, including through the creation of a new, one-step process to fund climate projects. The Board also allocated USD 187.7 million of new GCF resources for climate action, increasing its portfolio to USD 10.2 billion.

The accreditation framework governs how GCF works with partner organisations that implement GCF projects and programmes in developing countries. The Board has both strengthened the existing accreditation model for long-term partners as well as introduced a new streamlined process for organisations seeking finance for one-off, innovative climate solutions: the project-specific assessment approach (PSAA), from 2023.

The four-day virtual Board meeting included decisions relating to the Fund’s policies and operations and presentations by the Independent Evaluation Unit.  The Board approved one new entity for accreditation and four entities for re-accreditation.

Co-Chair Tlou Emmanuel Ramaru, from South Africa, stated: “In approving the strengthened accreditation framework and USD 187.7 million of new climate finance, the GCF Board is providing strong support for developing countries to increase climate action. The new process for project-specific assessments will also fill the climate finance gap for subnational, national and regional entities.”

Co-Chair Jean-Christophe Donnellier, from France, stated: “The board meeting that ends today resulted in the adoption of the updated accreditation framework and project-specific assessment approach (PSAA), two policies aimed at strengthening the access, the impact and the mobilisation of the Green Climate Fund and providing it with the capacity to engage more with the private sector, which is essential to ensure the fund's performance. We also congratulate all the projects funded and the entities accredited or re-accredited at this board meeting, and especially the Development Bank from Southern Africa (DBSA), which recently committed to ambitious climate targets across their total investment and loan portfolios, as part of their integrated Just Investment Framework.”

GCF Executive Director Yannick Glemarec stated: “GCF aims to accelerate the programming of climate finance in 2022 – 2023, which will maintain the momentum of the last two years where we delivered a record volume of programming.  The enhanced accreditation framework and PSAA will help to move funds more rapidly and efficiently to implement climate action on the ground."

The PSAA, introduced on a pilot basis, will allow organisations, which have a climate project proposal to bring it directly to GCF for rapid consideration. This new pathway will apply to entities from the public and private sectors, and non-profit organisations. During the first year, priority will be given to project proposals coming from subnational, national and regional entities based in developing countries, particularly those from countries without an existing GCF-funded project, with seed funding to develop project ideas being made available through GCF’s Project Preparation Facility.

At the first of four Board meetings scheduled in 2022, the Secretariat confirmed that GCF remains on track to meet its ambitious programming targets for the year. According to the financial plan presented by the Secretariat, the volume of funding proposals will increase in subsequent Board meetings as more ‘commitment authority’ – the cash-flow of planned contributions that allows the Fund to commit to new project finance – increases. Thanks to the front-loading of some commitments from its contributors, GCF aims to achieve at least the lower end of its programming target of USD 1.7 billion and could reach the upper range of its target of about USD 2.4 billion if additional resources are mobilised later in the year.

The following projects were approved during the meeting:

• USD 73.3 million for ‘Climate-smart initiatives for climate change adaptation and sustainability in prioritized agricultural production systems in Colombia’ (CSICAP), undertaken with Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) (FP182); and
• USD 114.4 million for ‘Inclusive Green Financing Initiative (IGREENFIN I): Greening Agricultural Banks & the Financial Sector to Foster Climate Resilient, Low Emission Smallholder Agriculture in the Great Green Great Wall (GGW) countries - Phase I’, undertaken with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) (FP183).

The GCF Board approved the accreditation of:

• Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF)

​​​​and the reaccreditation applications of:

• Acumen, based in the United States;
• Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE), based in Senegal;
• Peruvian Trust Fund for National Parks and Protected Areas (PROFONANPE), based in Peru; and
• Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), based in South Africa.