The fifteenth meeting of the Board of the Green Climate Fund (B.15) will be held in Apia, Samoa, from 13 to 15 December 2016. It will be the first time the Board has met in the Pacific.

According to GCF Board Co-Chairs, Zaheer Fakir (South Africa) and Ewen McDonald (Australia), the meeting will focus chiefly on thorough and meaningful consideration of funding proposals.

“The Board agreed to hold an additional meeting in 2016 because the first formal meeting of the year, B.12, did not consider funding proposals and was instead focused on addressing policy gaps,” said McDonald. “Therefore, B.15 is first and foremost about funding proposals.”

There are nine proposals for consideration at B.15. Also high on the list of Board priorities will be to consider applications for accredited entity status, ways to enable easier and faster access to resources for certain activities, and the budget and Work Plan for 2017.

The Co-Chairs are confident that 2016 will end on a high note for the Fund.

“The GCF has made tremendous progress this year,” said Fakir. “We have rapidly improved the Fund’s performance, approved over USD 1 billion so far for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, more than doubled the number of Accredited Entities we partner with, and our pipeline of proposals continues to grow in volume and ambition.”

“We expect B.15 to result in more funding approved and further expansion of our partner base.”

The incoming Executive Director of the GCF Secretariat, Howard Bamsey, will attend B.15 to observe proceedings and to continue building relationships with the Board and Secretariat.

The Co-Chairs thank Board members, alternate members, advisers and the Secretariat for their hard work in the lead up to B.15.