Barbados signs agreement with Green Climate Fund

The Barbados government announced it had signed the island’s first Readiness Grant Agreement with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) allowing it to receive US$300,000 in grant financing.

Economic Affairs and Investment Minister Marsha Caddle, signed the accord on Monday on the margins of the GCF’s Global National Designated Authority and Private Investment for Climate Conferences, being held in South Korea.

“The government of Barbados is committed to improving our access to climate finance and ensuring that our own investments are climate resilient. We are doing our part.

“We now need the global community to follow through on the Paris Agreement because following this last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, we realise that small islands were right to insist in that Agreement on limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.

“At 1.5 degrees, for example, coral reefs decline another 70 to 90 per cent. At two degrees, that goes to 99 per cent. Barbados’ survival depends on local and global climate action. We are pleased to have the GCF as partners in this fight,” she said.

A government statement said that through this readiness programme, Barbados will receive an initial US$300,000 in grant financing from the GCF that will enable access to one million US dollars annually for improving Barbados’ engagement with the Fund, and therefore its access to climate finance, and a further three million US dollars for the development of National Adaptation Plans.

It said that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment, which is the GCF National Designated Authority (NDA) in Barbados, has already commenced the development of further readiness proposals in that regard, and the country will be drawing down additional resources in 2019.

GCF readiness programmes help countries organize to better access climate finance. Barbados has set the target of being fossil fuel-free by 2030. The development of a roadmap to meet this target will be a key output of this GCF support. The programme will also seek to strengthen private sector involvement in clean energy and climate resilience projects.

Barbados has endorsed the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) as the regional institutions through which GCF-funded projects may be implemented. However, these resources will also support Barbados in establishing a national entity for direct access to GCF resources.

(Agency)