PARIS (APP) – The UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) said Friday it had approved its first financing of projects to help developing countries fight global warming, three weeks before a summit opens in Paris to ink a climate rescue pact.
Finance is a divisive issue as rich and developing nations negotiate a global agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and conference host France has said firm money commitments will be key to getting an agreement in December.
The GCF said in a statement its board had approved $168 million (155 million euros) for eight projects in countries including Peru, Malawi, Senegal, Bangladesh, Fiji and Maldives.
“The fund is now truly up and running, and I am confident the board will go on to scale and fund much bigger projects in the near future,” the board’s co-chairman Henrik Harboe said.
Developing nations are looking to rich countries to show how they intend to meet a promise made in 2009 to mobilise $100 billion (92 billion euros) per year in climate finance from 2020.
