Shortly after becoming director of Latin America and the Caribbean for the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Kristin Lang gave an interview saying regional dialogue is “extremely important” to understand the needs of this part of the world and how the GCF can serve them.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a global fund established by the United Nations to help developing countries fund climate change projects, supporting their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. However, it has often been criticised for being highly bureaucratic and failing to serve Global South countries being impacted by the climate crisis in a meaningful way.
Lang has been trying to change that image. Less than two weeks before the start of the Conference of Parties (COP30) in Brazil, the GCF announced the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) had been officially accredited as Trinidad and Tobago’s (T&T) first Direct Access Entity (DAE) strengthening the nation’s capacity to access and manage international climate finance.
One of the first projects GCF has embarked on with T&T is an early warning system. Speaking to Guardian Media at COP30 yesterday, Lang said, “We approved in the last board meeting an operation that will benefit T&T for early warning systems, which demonstrates the importance of really preparing people, in the case of Melissa. It’s not if, it’s when is the hurricane is going to hit and how to really ensure that it’s fit for purpose so that the people are prepared.”
Lang confirmed the Caribbean Development Bank is the accredited entity behind it and the project is between T&T and Belize. She added, “It’s really driving a paradigm shift towards climate resilience. We really need to focus on resilience, which means you need to modernise the hydrometeorological and early warning systems. You need to integrate the climate considerations into the decision making so that within the community capacity they are prepared. Awareness for disasters is a key, and being prepared is key.”
The cost of the project is $US27.1 million. The GCF hosted a regional dialogue in St Kitts and Nevis in March. Following this dialogue, Barbados decided to use a portion of the GCF readiness funds to launch a Caribbean regional platform.
“I do believe we are demonstrating that we are more efficient and more effective,” she added.
Pressed on what regional leaders can do to access the full advantages of the GCF, Lang responded, “The strategic leadership. Knowing what you want and how you want to go about it and who you want to deliver it. I think this leadership is really important, and we are seeing that with the National Designated Authority, which is our focal point in the country.
Each country, sometimes it’s in the Ministry of Finance, sometimes it’s in the Ministry of Environment, and having that person actually feel that they can influence how we involve the direct access entities. What is the priority that they want in order to pass the message out? There are more proposals coming in than we can finance. We need to ensure that resources are focused on what the priorities are.”
Lang also told Guardian Media that when it comes to the energy transition of the region, particularly in oil and based-economies, the first thing before crowding investment is looking at what policy and priorities does the government have. She concluded by saying, “We take everyone seriously. It’s the countries that are the ones who are determining how the resources can be used. It’s the countries that decide if they want to do 10 studies or if they want to put money towards a specific area. It’s up to them, so that’s the first thing. It’s country driven. It needs to be country driven in a manner which also is inclusive, so that it includes also the civil society.”
As COP30 unfolds, the question now is whether Caribbean governments can leverage this momentum to unlock faster, more targeted climate funding before the next crisis hits.
