BARCELONA – The United Nations-backed Green Climate Fund, to which donors will make new pledges on Thursday, needs to change how it operates so it can work with more local partners and get finance to vulnerable people “that haven’t really been reached”, said its new head.

Ms Mafalda Duarte told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the world’s largest multilateral climate fund – which has US$17 billion (S$23.36 billion) in capital – could team up with a wider range of organisations, supporting projects and programmes “that are closer to the communities and to the realities on the ground”.

“My premise is if we are to achieve the (climate) goals, we have to mobilise as much action as possible, and therefore we can’t rely on a network of a few dozen institutions – we really need to work with a much broader network,” she said in an interview ahead of this week’s pledging conference in Bonn.

That means, for example, channelling more resources from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to support local commercial banks and businesses in places like Kenya that are providing credit to farmers to buy clean energy equipment, such as solar-powered irrigation, or to switch to greener practices, said Ms Duarte.

The GCF backs nearly 230 projects across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe, with a roughly even split between helping countries cut their planet-heating emissions by adopting clean energy and efforts to adapt to more extreme weather and rising seas.

Following a September visit to Kenya, Ms Duarte – a Portuguese climate finance expert who took the GCF’s reins in August – said she had been impressed by a programme to help deliver clean, affordable energy to those who lack it in 16 African nations.

“It really requires understanding the context, understanding the communities, understanding the business models that will work,” she said, noting that needs are “much higher than what we are delivering”.

The United Nations estimates that hundreds of billions of dollars are needed each year to help developing countries tackle global warming. Yet wealthy governments are still falling short of a promise to mobilise US$100 billion annually for that purpose from 2020 – a target they hope to deliver on in 2023.

US pledge awaited

Ms Duarte noted that the GCF had not set a specific financial target for its second four-year replenishment running from 2024 to 2027. But, she said, “the consistent requests and pleas from developing countries for much more ambitious support” mean “we cannot aim at having less than before”.

About 45 rich nations promised US$10 billion in an initial pledging drive for the GCF in 2014 – and 32 countries gave a similar amount for its first replenishment in 2019, although the United States has yet to deliver US$1 billion of its original 2014 promise of US$3 billion by former president Barack Obama.

Some, mainly European countries, have already stepped up this time round, with about US$7.3 billion on the table so far, led by Germany and Britain offering about US$2 billion each.

Ms Duarte – who previously ran the multilateral Climate Investment Funds – said domestic circumstances meant not all donors would come forward with new cash this week but could do so in the lead up to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai starting on Nov 30.

“We are confident and hopeful that countries like the US and Australia – if they don’t pledge tomorrow – will pledge in the coming weeks,” she said.

Australia stepped back from the GCF in 2019 under a right-wing government which has since been voted out, while the US has struggled to get Congressional approval for large international climate finance allocations.

US President Joe Biden in 2023 delivered US$1 billion of the initial US pledge, on top of US$1 billion under former president Obama, but the shortfall in US funding has been a political sore point. Former president Donald Trump opposed GCF funding.

More money, simpler access

The GCF has also been under pressure to make it easier for developing countries to access its funding – something Mr Duarte wants to make progress on under her new “50by30” vision, announced at the UN Climate Ambition Summit in New York in September.

The reform programme aims to enable the GCF to efficiently manage capital of US$50 billion by 2030 – more than double its current level of resources – and deliver it “with significant impact”, Ms Duarte said.

She did not say how much the GCF would seek at its next replenishment starting in 2028, but noted the GCF aims to expand its pool of donors to include larger developing economies.

The 50by30 vision sets out to boost support for the most vulnerable people and communities, mobilise private sector participation and investments, speed up review and approvals for projects and prioritise programmes that can transform economic systems over one-off efforts.

It also plans to work differently with its partners, reducing “unnecessary complexity and transaction costs”, according to a GCF statement.

The fund already provides so-called “readiness” support to help countries tap into climate finance and has a simplified approvals process for smaller amounts of funding.

But Ms Duarte said the current model had not foreseen the high level of demand for GCF resources and was “not fit for purpose”.

Today, the fund has nearly 120 partners that are approved to deploy its finance – from UN agencies to international commercial banks, equity funds and environment ministries in developing countries. But Ms Duarte noted that about 140 more are interested in getting accredited to receive GCF money.

“Because of processes we have established around that, we are not able to respond effectively,” she said, calling for a tailor-made approach that suits the needs of different institutions in the public and private sectors.

“We have to meet the organisations where they are.” REUTERS