ISLAMABAD: The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved $120 million in climate adaptation financing to support the Asian Development Bank’s ‘Community Resilience Partnership Programme’ (CRPP), which aims to strengthen climate resilience in poor and vulnerable communities by scaling up climate adaptation investments at the local level.

The GCF approved the funding at its board meeting concluded in Tbilisi on Wednesday. GCF is a global fund created to help developing countries address the challenge of climate change.ADB has supported developing member countries to access $1 billion since becoming an accredited GCF entity in 2015.

Launched in 2021, the CRPP is a regional programme that will mobilise large scale public investments that support community level adaptation of poor and vulnerable people, develop national and local policies and initiatives that promote financing for community-led adaptation, and increase the meaningful participation of poor people, especially women, in resilience-related decision-making.

This ensures that those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change can engage in a fair process and receive a fair share of the benefits of adaptation efforts.

“Scaling up local climate adaptation investments is essential to protecting vulnerable communities and promoting inclusive and sustainable development amid growing climate risk in Asia and the Pacific,” said ADB Vice President for Sectors and Themes Fatima Yasmin.

“The CRPP is our long-term, programmatic response that pinpoints adaptation measures that address climate, poverty, and gender challenges. The CRPP is designed for implementation over a ten-year period from 2021 to 2031, and we thank the GCF for supporting the programme,” she said.

The CRPP is operationalized through the Community Resilience Financing Partnership Facility (CRFPF), which includes the CRPP Trust Fund supported by the Nordic Development Fund, the French Development Agency, and the United Kingdom, and the CRPP Investment Fund financed by GCF to support the implementation of local adaptation measures through downstream investments.

As Asia and the Pacific’s climate bank, ADB aims to deliver $100 billion in cumulative climate finance from its own resources between 2019 and 2030. The CRPP will contribute to this target by supporting climate adaptation solutions at the local level, especially in the context of investments in social protection, livelihoods, and decentralisation.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2023