Billions available to Commonwealth countries in Green Climate Fund

There are billions of dollars available to Commonwealth countries in the Green Climate Fund (GCF), but most countries have no access to it because they do not have the acuity, expertise or the ability to make claims in a way that is likely to be fulfilled.But according to Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland QC, this is changing as the Secretariat has created a climate change access hub, in Mauritius, that all countries, specifically the 31 small states, can turn to for help in making claims.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a fund established within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change.Scotland said the hub in Mauritius has spokes in each region and the Caribbean spoke is in Belize at the Climate Change Centre.

“What we also did is that we enabled advisors to be situated in countries who ask for such assistance. So, for example, Jamaica has had the benefit of an advisor for more than six months now. But within six months they were able to make two applications,” revealed Scotland while speaking last Monday, April 30 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conference room.She was in St Vincent as part of a Caribbean tour in which she met with leaders to explore the Commonwealth’s role in minimizing the impact of extreme weather events as the region’s hurricane season approaches.

Scotland said like other islands in the region, Jamaica has mainly small and medium size businesses and these businesses are adversely affected by climate change and as a result want to be more resilient.

“Under the Paris Agreement, you can have money for adaptation and for mitigation, but it was very difficult for those small businesses to make those applications, so Jamaica was able to make an application to the Green Fund on behalf of their small and medium size businesses and they succeeded in getting an award of $580,000.“That will help small businesses to respond better and manage their climate change. We now know that there are other businesses in small islands that will have similar needs and now we have a method to know what works, we can share that method with the other islands who will similarly have small and medium size businesses who will similarly want to have that opportunity,” said Scotland.She said the advisors in these countries will be looking at what works and pooling the knowledge.

“All the advisors go to the spokes in the region, but they also collaborate with the hub so all the advisors from all regions, since we have similar problems in the Indian Ocean, similar problems in the Pacific, are sharing that expertise so that’s a concrete way we can give real time advise and help and support to our countries,” Scotland commented.She also revealed that small Commonwealth states will soon be able to apply for up to $300 million over a period of three years to help build trade facilities.

“Real tools are being developed together with the financial climate change access hub which will help our countries to get the advice that they need to draw down money,” said Scotland.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General also noted that some remarkable agreements were made at the last Commonwealth meetings in London while the theme of the meeting was, “The Commonwealth towards a common future…a more prosperous future, a safer future and a more sustainable future.

”Speaking about the meeting which ran from April 16 to 20, Scotland said the Commonwealth came together as 53 countries and 2.4 billion people, 60 per cent of whom are under the age of 30, “to craft that future and out of it came a connectivity agenda which is about business.”She said persons must understand there is an advantage in Commonwealth countries trading together because we have the same laws, parliamentary systems and many similar institutions

.“We were talking about how we build the connectivity and how we turn that into a 30 per cent advantage and how we put the wealth back into Commonwealth, but also how we put the common back into wealth,” said Scotland. She noted that the meeting also saw discussions on the youth and women’s rights.