PRESS RELEASE
Manokwari, June 19, 2019 – The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has rolled out a financing mechanism called the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to help developing countries tackle the impacts of climate change. Local governments with a vision of sustainable development have a great opportunity to access the climate change fund to finance various development programs.
“The Government of West Papua Province has made a commitment to carry out sustainable development by taking into account the conservation of nature and the rights of indigenous people. This is massive work that requires the involvement of all stakeholders, including the central government and international community. The opportunity to obtain funding from global initiatives to tackle the impacts of climate change such as GCF gives hope for West Papua to carry out such great work,” said the Regional Secretary representing the Governor of West Papua, Dominggus Mandacan in his opening remarks at the Workshop on Green Climate Fund’s Potential Funding in West Papua Province in Manokwari on Wednesday June 19th, 2019.
Established in 2010, GCF is the largest multilateral climate change fund in the world. As of today, GCF has collected as much as US$10.3 billion to be channeled to public and private sectors in the form of long-term soft loans, equity, or grants. GCF provides funding for various sustainable development programs that is aimed to achieve emission reduction targets (mitigation) in many sectors, including renewable energy, forest and land use, transportation and urban development. The funds are also channeled to increase resilience to the impacts of climate change (adaptation), especially in the fields of health, food and water securities, ecosystem, livelihoods of people and community, and infrastructure development.
According to Noor Syaifudin, Head of Other Climate Change Fundings Subdivision, Fiscal Policy Agency, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, to optimize GCF’s funding, Indonesia needs to have a list of climate change projects that are in line with national priorities and have gone through a study of climate finance mapping. In collaboration with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the Conservation International (CI) in Indonesia, this workshop was attended by stakeholders from West Papua, Papua, Maluku and North Maluku Provinces. The workshop also served as an avenue to identify local potential projects that meet GCF requirements.
“Considering that these climate change projects will be implemented at the regional level, local governments that wish to access the fund need to be actively involved in utilizing funding opportunities from GCF by developing programs that support sustainable development and collaborating with accredited entities,” said Noor.
In this case, local governments in Papua and Maluku need to immediately develop programs that are in line with sustainable development priorities that have the potential to get GCF’s funding. For the program development, local governments can collaborate with a number of partners including accredited financial service institutions that have experience in climate change programs. In addition, prospective recipients of climate change funds also need to consult with the Fiscal Policy Agency (FPA) (or Badan Kebijakan Fiskal/BKF) of the Ministry of Finance as the focal point or National Designated Authority (NDA) that regulates and oversees the implementation of GCF activities in Indonesia.
As the NDA, FPA is mandated to ensure the alignment of projects developed with GCF’s funding with national priorities and targets related to adaptation and mitigation of climate change. At present, GCF has approved funding of US$100 million for the Indonesian Geothermal Resource Risk Mitigation Project (GREM) with a total investment of US$410 million that is managed by the World Bank as an Accredited Entity. In addition, GCF will channel as much as US$0.8 million for the preparation project of the Bus Rapid Transit facility in Semarang with a total of US$1.25 million worth, managed by PT Sarana Multi Infrastuktur (Persero) as an Accredited Entity.
Dessi Yuliana, GGGI Green Investment Specialist, added that GGGI was appointed by FPA as the delivery partner for the implementation of the Readiness and Preparatory Support Program (RPSP) of GCF in Indonesia. “GGGI provides readiness and preparatory support program for FPA and other institutions to build their capacities in accessing GCF’s funding. Our goal is to help improve the readiness of FPA in carrying out its role as the NDA,” said Dessi.
Contact Information:
Faradina Salsabil
GCF NDA Secretariat in Indonesia
Fiscal Policy Agency
Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia
Gedung R.M. Notohamiprodjo, 5th Floor
Jl. Dr Wahidin Raya No. 1 Jakarta Pusat 10710
Phone: +6221 34831676