The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United States of America, and the Walloon Region of Belgium.
Today in Sharm El-Sheikh, we announce contributions totaling 70.6 million USD[i] to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) and 35.0 million USD for the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), hosted by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Additional countries expressed their strong political support to the two funds, with several in the process of securing resources.
The LDCF plays a key role in addressing urgent and immediate adaptation needs of the least developed countries (LDCs). To date, the LDCF has approved approximately 1.7 billion USD in grants for projects, programs, and enabling activities for high impact adaptation projects. Under the recently approved LDCF strategy for the period 2022-2026, the LDCF will support a range of adaptation themes including agriculture, food security and health, water, climate information services and nature-based solutions. The new funding commitment to the LDCF by donors will help LDCs in implementing this new strategy for scaling up adaptation solutions and advancing a whole-of-society approach for adaptation.
The SCCF supports climate change adaptation in the world’s most vulnerable countries, specifically Small Island Development States (SIDS) and supports innovative adaptation projects. Since its inception, the SCCF has provided 364 million USD in grants for adaptation projects. Under the new SCCF 2022-2026 Programming Strategy, one of its funding windows is now dedicated to SIDS in order to address their adaptation needs. This is the first time that there is dedicated support for the adaptation needs of SIDS among the multilateral climate finance channels. Another funding window supports technology transfer, innovation, and private sector engagement for adaptation in all developing countries. The new pledges for the SCCF will help to address the longstanding need of the SIDS for dedicated support that responds to their particular adaptation priorities.
The following new contributions to the LDCF and SCCF will continue supporting adaptation priorities identified by recipient countries:
- Denmark pledged 150 million DKK (approximately equivalent to 21 million USD) for 2022 to the LDCF, along with a pledge of 75 million DKK (approximately equivalent to 10.5 million USD) for 2023-2024 to the SCCF – subject to parliamentary approval.
- Finland will contribute 2 million EUR (approximately equivalent to 2.1 million USD) to the LDCF as announced in June 2022 during LDCF/SCCF Council meeting.
- Germany will contribute 9 million EUR (approximately equivalent to 9.3 million USD) in 2022 to the LDCF and 10 million EUR (approximately equivalent to 10.3 million USD) in 2023 to the SCCF to avert and minimize negative impacts of climate change, subject to parliamentary approval.
- Ireland contributed/will contribute 2 million Euros (approximately equivalent to 2.1 million USD) to the LDCF and 2 million Euros (approximately equivalent to 2.1 million USD) to the SCCF in 2022.
- Slovenia will contribute up to 0.07 million EUR (approximately equivalent to 0.07 million USD) for the LDCF and 0.07 million EUR for the SCCF, subject to the approval by the government.
- Sweden pledged 180 million Swedish Kronor (approximately equivalent to 17.3 million USD) to the LDCF for the period 2022 which is an increase of 50 million Kronor (approximately equivalent to 4.8 million USD) from the previous year’s funding.
- Switzerland will, subject to parliamentary approval, make a voluntary cumulative contribution of 16 million CHF (approximately equivalent to 16.8 million USD) for the period 2023-2026 to the LDCF and 11.5 million CHF (approximately $12.1 million USD) to the SCCF for the period 2022-2026.
- Walloon Region of Belgium will contribute 2 million Euros (approximately equivalent to 2.1 million USD) to the LDCF.
The following countries expressed political support to the LDCF and SCCF and the recently approved Programming Strategy and the cumulative financial scenarios of 200 million USD to 400 million USD for the SCCF and 1 billion USD to 1.3 billion USD for the LDCF for the period of 2022-2026.
- Belgium
- Canada
- France
- United States
Together, the countries present recognized that LDCs and SIDS are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change and are in urgent need of targeted support for their adaptation actions.
See the press release for more information.
[i] All conversions to USD are based on exchange rates as of November 15, 2022.
