Recommendation 43

HM Government Not Addressed

While the amount of available climate finance is increasing, current mechanisms for accessing climate finance are often slow, complex, resource intensive, uncertain, and project based. Insufficient coherence also leaves developing countries unable to access or utilise the support they need on climate action and sustainable development, offering a piecemeal response to partner countries’ needs. At the Climate and Development Ministerial, convened by the UK COP26 Presidency on 31 March 2021, participants recognised the urgent need to streamline access to climate finance, with greater individual and collective action required both before and following COP26. The Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance was created in response to these longstanding calls for reform from developing countries. Co-chaired by Fiji and the UK, the Taskforce aims to transform the way climate finance is accessed through the implementation of a new approach, to ensure countries and communities get the climate finance they need faster, in alignment with their own plans and priorities, and supported by coherent, programmatic finance from multilateral and bilateral partners. At COP26 the Taskforce published a set of Principles and Recommendations underpinning this approach: https://ukcop26.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Principles-and- Recommendations-on-Access-to-Climate-Finance.pdf. These address a range of issues raised by LDCs and SIDS, including at the Climate and Development Ministerial, such as streamlining and simplifying accreditation, approval and reporting procedures, aligning support behind partner countries’ own national climate action priorities and strengthening the capacity of partner country institutions. Also announced at COP26 were five pioneer countries—Bangladesh, Fiji, Jamaica, Rwanda and Uganda—who will trial the new approach in cooperation with providers of climate finance. The UK has committed £100m to support implementation of the new approach set out in the Principles and Recommendations, and we encourage other providers and recipients to join us in applying this approach and learning from it. The UK also strongly supports measures to improve LDC and SIDS’ access to climate finance through the multilateral climate funds, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF). As noted in Lord Goldsmith’s letter to the Committee following his oral evidence session, the GCF developed its Simplified Approvals Process (SAP) to reduce the time and effort needed in the preparation, review, approval and disbursement procedures for certain projects, in particular small-scale activities. Following a pilot phase, in which 23 projects for a value of $208m have been approved through the SAP (74% in LDCs/SIDS/Africa), the UK has been championing the introduction by the GCF Board of an enhanced SAP