By Adeola Ogunlade
The newly appointed Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, (GCF’s) Mafalda Duarte, has pledged her commitment to deepened collaboration with local communities for greater impact, mobilise more resources and raise the GCF’s ambition in terms of funding contributions.
Duarte said this at a meeting held at the sideline of the ongoing African Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya where she introduce herself and also network with Civil Society Organizations. The dialogue aims to create a platform for African non state actors to engage, express concerns, and contribute to aligning GCF strategies with Africa’s realities and the aspirations of communities at the frontlines of the climate change crisis.
It brought together civil society groups, industry players, government representatives from across Africa. It held physically and virtually.
Duarte lamented the lack of commensurate will to mobilize climate action revenues for Africa.
The GCF’s boss, who comes with high level experience in the climate finance space, having been the CEO of the Climate Investment Funds based in Washington, United States; disclosed that she and her team would be doing all they can to mobilize resources and raise the GCF’s ambitions in terms of funding contributions.
According to Duarte, there have been a $100billion commitment from developed countries for some years to finance climate action in developing countries but till date, no commensurate commitment.
‘It’s quite frustrating when contributions to climate finance are not forthcoming”, says Duarte.
She added “when the pandemic hit, countries were able to mobilize resources. But when it comes to mobilizing resources for climate action in developing countries, it’s a different story. But we have banks in these countries investing in fossil fuels and industrial agriculture.”
Responding to several issues and questions by CSOs, Duarte spoke on the need to get indigenous people involved directly in GCF projects, when asked about how they could be better represented.
She agreed that they are the custodians and stewards of their communities, and they would probably have more accumulated knowledge that the GCF accredited entities might not readily be aware of, stating that nothing prevents the GCF from providing resources through a very diverse set of stakeholders, including those closer to the communities.”
The CSOs gathered also spoke on the need to have more control over the kind of agreements indigenous people are compelled to sign. Citing the case of a situation in Brazil where a carbon agreement was signed by communities in the Amazon in ignorance, they decried such situations where such agreements are signed in ignorance.
As an essential partner for African nations, the new Executive Director of the GCF holds a key position in driving effective climate action on the continent.