The Environmental Investment Fund (EIF) has raised more than N.dollars 640 million for climate action grants since its accreditation by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2016.
A media statement issued on Monday by the EIF said the fund has been reaccredited to the GCF for a further five-year contract to fund projects and programmes geared towards climate resilience, after its contract lapsed in June 2021.
“The GCF board recognises the importance of increasing support for developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change and the reaccreditation demonstrates the cooperation, commitment and dedication of the Namibian government to climate change,” it noted.
Some of the projects highlighted by the fund included climate resilient agriculture schemes executed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform in three vulnerable extreme northern crop-growing regions valued at N.dollars 149 million.
Thirty-three community-based rural climate change adaptation projects aimed at empowering rural inhabitants in terms of awareness, adaptive capacity and low carbon rural development valued at N.dollars 126 million, also benefited.
Another project included improving rangeland and ecosystem management practices of smallholder farmers working under climate change conditions in the Sesfontein, Fransfontein and Warmquelle areas valued at N.dollars 140 million.
“The youngest EIF investment seeks to increase climate change resilience of eight productive communal area landscapes in 13 regions through the implementation of eco system-based adaptation actions to the tune of N.dollars 137 million. Most of these projects are five-year long term projects,” the statement noted.
EIF is Namibia’s response to the growing global need for green financing established in terms of the Environmental Investment Fund Act 13 of 2001, with a mandate to raise funding for investments into projects and programmes that promote sustainable development.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
