As the Green Climate Fund meets to select projects for funding, is the current funding criteria prioritising a business as usual approach? Ahead of the Paris climate summit (COP21), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board will decide which of the submitted proposals will receive the first round of funding at its 11th board meeting in Livingstone, Zambia (PDF) (2-5 November 2015) ...

But while there is a clear need for balancing decentralised solutions with traditional large-scale infrastructure projects, not one project from the sub-national level has been included on the final shortlist. We look at three reasons why this might be the case – and three steps that could help remedy the situation.

Thirty-seven funding proposals were submitted in total, eight of which have been submitted to the GCF Board for approval (see table below). They cover a wide range of projects and programmes, including large-scale projects from the private sector (Acumen has proposed a regional venture fund, for example) and proposals from multilateral bodies (the Inter-American Development Bank has put forward a proposal for energy efficiency bonds).

There are also infrastructure proposals from the Asian Development Bank in Fiji and the German development bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW), in Bangladesh and proposals submitted by "national implementing entities" (NIE), (such as Profonanpe in Peru and the Senegalese agency, Centre de Suivi Ecologique).

While more than 80 per cent of the projects are located within Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island States (SIDs) or in African countries, with proposals from the national, regional and international levels, there are none from the local level. Sub-national entities once again remain on the decision-making fringe.

The table below lists funding proposals submitted to the GCF board (click on the image to enlarge it).

 For more Information, please consult the following link:  Getting Green Climate Funding to the local level