LENSAINDONESIA.COM - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has rolled out a financing mechanism called the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to help developing countries cope with the effects of climate change. Local governments who have the vision to develop sustainably have a great opportunity to access climate change funds to finance various development programs.

"The West Papua Provincial Government has committed to carry out sustainable development by paying attention to nature conservation and the rights of indigenous peoples. This is a big work that requires the involvement of all stakeholders, including the central government and the international world. The opportunity to obtain funding from global initiatives to address the effects of climate change such as the GCF gives West Papua hope to carry out this great work," said the Regional Secretary representing the Governor of West Papua Dominggus Mandacan in his remarks when opening the Green Climate Fund Funding Potential Workshop in the Province West Papua in Manokwari, in a written statement to Licom, Wednesday 19 June 2019.

The GCF, which was founded in 2010, is the world's largest climate change multilateral funding, which has so far raised US $ 10.3 billion, to be channeled to the public and private sectors in the form of long-term soft loans, equity, or grants.

GCF funds can be used to finance various sustainable development programs to achieve emission reduction (mitigation) targets such as renewable energy, forest and land use, transportation and urban area development. GCF funds are also channeled to increase resilience to the impacts of climate change (adaptation) especially in the fields of health, food and water; ecosystem; community and community livelihoods; and infrastructure development.

According to Noor Syaifudin, Head of the Other Climate Change Funding Subdivision, Fiscal Policy Agency, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesia needs to have a list of climate change projects that are in line with national priorities and have gone through climate finance mapping studies in order to optimize GCF funding.

In collaboration with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and Conservation International (CI) in Indonesia, the workshop that was participated by stakeholders in the provinces of West Papua, Papua, Maluku and North Maluku became a means to identify potential projects in areas that meet the GCF requirements.

"Given that climate change projects are being implemented at the local level, local governments also need to be actively involved in utilizing GCF funding opportunities by developing programs that support sustainable development and collaborating with accredited entities to access these funds," Noor said.

In this case, local governments in the regions of Papua and Maluku need to immediately formulate programs that are in line with sustainable development priorities that have the potential to receive GCF funding support. For the development of the program, local governments can partner with a number of partners including accredited financial services institutions that have experience in climate change programs.

In addition, potential recipients of climate change funds also need to consult with the Fiscal Policy Agency under the Ministry of Finance who acts as the focal point or National Designated Authority (NDA) which regulates and oversees the implementation of GCF activities in Indonesia.

As an NDA, the BKF has the duty to ensure that projects developed from GCF funding are aligned with national priorities and targets related to climate change adaptation and mitigation. At present, the GCF has approved funding of US$100 million for the Indonesia Geothermal Resource Risk Mitigation Project (GREM) project with a total investment of US$410 million which is run by PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (Persero) as an Accredited Institution.

In addition, a fund of US$0.8 million will also be channeled by the GCF for the project to prepare a Bus Rapid Transit transportation mode facility in Semarang totaling US$1.25 million.

Dessi Yuliana, GGGI Green Investment Specialist, added, GGGI was appointed by BKF as a delivery partner in the implementation of the GCF Readiness and Preparatory Support Program (RPSP) in Indonesia. "GGGI provides preparatory and preparedness support programs for BKF and other institutions in increasing capacity so that they are able to access GCF funding. Our goal is to help improve BKF's readiness to carry out its role as NDA," said Dessi.@licom

LensaIndonesia.com / Yuanto
https://www.lensaindonesia.com/2019/06/20/dana-perubahan-iklim-gcf-mendorong-pembangunan-berkelanjutan.html