Stockholm World Water Week: GCF looks for more water projects that can bring scale
The Green Climate Fund announced the development of a sectoral guideline to scale-up water projects, especially more transformative projects. The announcement was made at the Holland Pavilion during the Stockholm World Water Week. The Dutch government supports the development of the guideline together with involving research institute Deltares and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.
More budget for climate projects
At this moment 27 water-related projects and programmes, worth 2.78 billion dollars, are financed or co-financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF). As the GCF budget will be increased there is more money available for climate adaptation projects initiated by the water sector. At the Stockholm World Water Week, the Dutch government announced a dedicated water guideline to make sure that the projects that are selected will ultimately deliver and bring scale to the efforts focusing on achieving universal access to water.
Great water projects
Water specialist Chibesa Pensulo of the Green Climate Fund disclosed the new plans to fill the fund’s pipeline with more projects on climate resilient water supply and integrated water resource management. 'Our fund needs a guidance on what it takes for good water projects to become good climate projects as well'.
She expects that the guideline will help unlock the potential for money to come into the sector for consumptive and non-consumptive water use. "We should make water projects more viable for private investments. Therefore, we will especially be looking for projects with innovative financing".
Special attention areas
Pensulo unfolded the strategy for the fund’s water portfolio:
- availability and use of hydrometeorological information for planning
- early warning systems for floods, especially for ‘last mile’ to individuals
- integrated water resource management to coordinate among stakeholders, across a catchment, across sectors, across borders and involving private sector
The strategy indicates the type of water projects that can expect special attention from the GCF fund. Input is collected from the water and climate communities at the Amsterdam International Water Week (early November) and COP25 climate summit in Chile (early December).
Relation with 2030 agenda
In his opening remarks Michiel de Lijster, programme manager International Water Ambition of the Dutch government called upon everybody to join. Not only for the process of determining the guidelines but also for the support of the Green Climate Fund in general. De Lijster emphasized the importance of more transformative water projects in relation to the 2030 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. "It is important to look at the goals that have a strong link with water. I'd like to point out goal number two on food, goal 11 on urban development, 13 on climate adaptation and not to forget goal 14 on oceans.”
Three pilots
Eelco van Beek of Deltares explained the roadmap to the guideline framework which is expected in March 2020. Meanwhile, more feedback from the water and climate communities will be collected at consultative meetings at the Climate Summit in New York (23 September), the Amsterdam International Water Week (4-8 November) and COP25 climate summit in Chile (2-13 December). According to Van Beek three pilots will be deployed to test the GFC water guidelines and address the GFC mandate, the IWRM-principles and overarching silo’s both inside the water sector as well as in others sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure and energy.
About Green Climate Fund
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a new global fund created to support the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change. GCF helps developing countries limit or reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate change. It seeks to promote a paradigm shift to low-emission and climate-resilient development, taking into account the needs of nations that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts.
It was set up by the 194 countries who are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010, as part of the Convention’s financial mechanism. It aims to deliver equal amounts of funding to mitigation and adaptation, while being guided by the Convention’s principles and provisions.
When the Paris Agreement was reached in 2015, the Green Climate Fund was given an important role in serving the agreement and supporting the goal of keeping climate change well below 2 degrees Celsius.
The Fund’s investments can be in the form of grants, loans, equity or guarantees
