ADB launches new platform for mobilizing climate finance

MANILA, Philippines — A new platform for mobilizing climate finance has been created by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help its developing member countries in Asia and the Pacific to mobilize funding for climate-related projects.

The bank recently announced that the NDC Advance Platform, which is funded through a $4.55 million grant, would help provide for the following: technical assistance to help countries better engage with potential sources of climate finance and make use of innovative finance mechanisms; identification and prioritization of priority projects; and support to countries in tracking how projects deliver against climate goals.

Specifically, the platform would provide assistance to ADB member countries in meeting their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as voluntarily committed under the Paris climate agreement.

NDCs also describe priority actions for countries to adapt to climate change.

Under the Paris agreement, countries committed toward working to limit the increase in the global average temperature to below two degrees Celsius.

“Through their NDCs, our developing member countries have made ambitious commitments to respond to climate change,” said ADB vice president for knowledge management and sustainable development  Bambang Susantono.

“We need to ensure that countries are able to mobilize the needed financing to deliver on their commitments. NDC Advance will help countries devise investment plans to tap financing from a variety of sources and to implement priority projects effectively,” he added.

ADB said this new initiative would help propel the climate actions ADB has committed to under its Strategy 2030 program.

Earlier this year, ADB committed to ensuring that 75 percent of its operations would support climate change mitigation and adaptation by 2030, while providing cumulative climate financing of $80 billion from its own sources between 2019 and 2030.

Early this month, multilateral development banks (MDBs) have committed to work together on six areas that would support the goals of the Paris agreement to limit global warming.

In a joint declaration issued at the start of the 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) in Katowice, Poland, nine MDBs  including the ADB announced a joint framework for aligning their activities with the Paris climate pact.

MDBs thus committed to align their operations with low-emission development pathways of different countries; scale up provision of climate finance; strengthen climate change adaptation of communities; develop services that would enable countries to put in place long-term strategies for the transition to low-emission pathways, strengthen the reporting method on progress of climate-alignment activities; and align internal policies with the global climate objectives.