This session provides a platform for leaders from climate-vulnerable nations to present their solution for increasing access to finance using existing proven instruments and mechanisms, notably the Local Climate Adaptive Living facility. This session builds on an earlier meeting of Ministers from LoCAL countries, which concluded with a Ministerial Declaration calling for LoCAL to be recognized as a Non-Market Approach under Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement.
High-Level representatives and ministers from countries deploying the Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) mechanism have recently signed a Ministerial Declaration aimed to provide political guidance and high-level leadership for the efforts on locally led adaptation action in vulnerable countries particularly, Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDs) and African countries. The declaration is a strong call ahead of COP27 for increased climate finance for NDC-aligned locally led action using the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility as a Non-Market Approach under article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement.
Innovative finance solutions and mechanisms, like LoCAL, offer a powerful and cost-effective instrument to meet the rampant adaptation finance needs, particularly from the most vulnerable communities, in the worlds’ most vulnerable countries. National and subnational governments and communities are best placed to understand local adaptation needs, challenges and opportunities and have a direct stake in any climate action outcome but face a myriad of obstacles to accessing climate finance, which overwhelmingly is channeled through international intermediaries.
The LoCAL Facility, designed and hosted by the UN Capital Development Fund, is supporting 32 countries, mostly LDCs, SIDS and African nations, to integrate climate change adaptation into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems, increase awareness of and response to climate change at the local level, and increase the amount of finance available to local governments for locally led adaptation and resilience-building. In spite such efforts, the vast majority of tracked finance continues to flow toward mitigation activities, with adaptation finance making up only 5% of flows (CPI, 2019), and of this meagre amount, “less than 20% of the funding for adaptation seems to go to the most vulnerable communities in the most vulnerable countries” (International Centre for Climate Change and Development, 2019). On the other hand, the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA 2019) estimates adaptation costs at USD 180 billion annually from 2020 to 2030.