Glasgow, Great Britain, November 3, 2021 – The side-event entitled “Central Asia: A regional approach to working with the Green Climate Fund (GCF)” was conducted in Central Asia Pavilion "5 countries -1 region – 1 voice” in an online and offline format.
The Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC) in partnership with Green Climate Fund (GCF), national designated authorities for work with GCF in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan organized the event with the participation of national bodies, implementing agencies, donor countries and international organizations.
CAREC Executive Director Zafar Makhmudov highlighted the importance of timely and accelerated financing of green projects especially of the countries that are in dire need. He notices that some financial institutions consider project proposals for a long time, up to 7 years. Eventually, the relevancy of both proposal and financing is lost.
The purpose of the side-event is to announce a regional initiative of the Central Asian National Contact Points to create a mechanism that will help share experiences, examine various GCF financial instruments and the work experience of each other, and prepare high-quality project proposals of regional importance.
Central Asia actively implements national strategies and action plans for the transition to a green economy and the achievement of the SDGs. The regional programmes have been updated with a list of projects of regional importance that require funding.
An analysis of the work of the CA countries with GCF (period 2015-2020) shows that the project portfolio is only 4%, Readiness opportunities have been used by 25%. The CA region has not received a single project under the "Piloting a Small Project with High Dissemination Potential" budget line where up to $10 million can be obtained without applying through accredited bodies.
To achieve climate resilience and fulfilment of international commitments as well as national climate change priorities, national GCF teams are pooling their experience and expertise to develop project proposals of high quality and regional relevance and to encourage international partners and donors to join this initiative.
Central Asia Pavilion is organized by CAREC in cooperation with EC IFAS and IGTIPC under financial support of the World Bank, OSCE, ERG, FAO and UNDP.
The record of the side-event is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZylMh8L5Wo