Jamaica has high praise for Climate Finance Access Hub
JAMAICA IS being positioned to benefit increasingly from available financial flows for its climate change readiness efforts, thanks to the work of the Climate Finance Access Hub (CFAH).
According to UnaMay Gordon, head of the Climate Change Division (CCD) of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, the island has been provided with an adviser who has worked on a climate readiness finance strategy that is already reaping dividends.
“The hub has been invaluable to Jamaica, as the deployment of a climate finance adviser (Katherine Blackman) is creating an enabling environment conducive for accessing available international climate funds. CCD has a small staff and the support from the hub allowed us to have a dedicated person to focus on climate financing and guide agencies on possible opportunities for finance, especially given our role as the national designated authority to the Green Climate Fund (GCF),” she told The Gleaner.
“The hub, through the adviser, provides access to a knowledge network and technical support mechanism to enable peer-to-peer exchanges and consultancies,” she added. On the strategy, Gordon said that it is “essentially the approach CCD is taking to increase access to finance through identifying a priority of projects, diversifying access modalities, mobilising the private sector and third sector in climate finance, and developing a plan for tracking implementation of the nationally determined contributions (to greenhouse gas emissions)”.
With funding from Australia and in-kind contributions from the government of Mauritius, the CFAH was set up in 2016to provide long-term capacity development and a platform for Commonwealth NorthSouth and South-South cooperation.
As at April this year, Gordon explained the hub has provided support to nine countries – four of them, including Jamaica, from the Caribbean. The other participating islands from the region are Barbados, Belize, and Guyana. Two other countries – Tonga and Vanuatu – are in the Pacific, and the other three (Eswatini [formerly Swaziland], Mauritius and Namibia) in Africa.
Courtesy of the hub’s support, Jamaica has already secured some US$3 million in climate finance from the Green Climate Fund Readiness Programme and the Global Environment Facility, including US$1.3 million to strengthen the country’s capacity to meet transparency requirements under the Paris Agreement.
“These readiness activities will help Jamaica to strategically develop a pipeline of priority projects for submission to the Green Climate Fund and other climate finance envelopes for financing,” Gordon said.
Immediate next steps, she added, include mobilising funding to facilitate gender-responsive climate financing, to engage civil society organisations in climate action, and to support national adaptation planning.
National entities, including the Development Bank of Jamaica and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund, that are seeking to gain GCF accreditation to enable them to receive funding directly are being provided technical and advisory support.
‘These readiness activities will help Jamaica to strategically develop a pipeline of priority projects for submission to the Green Climate Fund and other climate finance envelopes for financing.’