The UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) said on Friday it had approved its first financing of projects to help developing countries fight global warming, three weeks before a summit opens in Paris to ink a
The UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) said on Friday it had approved its first financing of projects to help developing countries fight global warming, three weeks before a summit opens in Paris to ink a climate rescue pact.
Finance is a divisive issue as rich and developing nations negotiate a global agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and conference host France has said that firm money commitments will be key to getting an agreement in December.
The GCF said in a statement that its board had approved $168 million for eight projects in countries including Peru, Malawi, Senegal, Bangladesh, Fiji and Maldives.
“The fund is now truly up and running, and I am confident the board will go on to scale and fund much bigger projects in the near future,” the board’s co-chairman Henrik Harboe said.
The money is to help them make the shift from cheap and abundant fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, and to shore up national defences against climate change-induced superstorms, drought, floods and sea-level rise.
Meanwhile, the UN warned on Friday that carbon-cutting pledges from 146 nations are “far from enough” to stave off dangerous global warming, three weeks ahead of a crucial climate summit in Paris.
