COP and NDF in Marrakesh focus on "blue" in addition to "green"

"From commitments to actions" was the theme of an event that focused on Latin America. Opportunities to use climate finance in a catalytic role to implement the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) were discussed by representatives of the governments of Chile and Colombia, as well as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and NDF.

NDF is joining the IDB's high profile initiative called NDC Invest Platform. The NDF-supported "NDC accelerator" will fill a gap in project development, and help countries to produce bankable projects delivering on NDC commitments.

Climate change issues are not only "green" but increasingly also "blue". This was well demonstrated when the World Bank together with a number of African countries were hosts to another event, focusing on "Blue economy in Africa: Oceans and coastal resilience."

NDF was invited to describe its experiences and lessons learned from a variety of projects related to investments in coastal management and resilience, fisheries and aquaculture, flood risk management, etc., in a number of African countries ranging from Tanzania and Mozambique to Senegal and other countries in Western Africa.

NDF referred to its good collaboration with the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Lessons learned indicate that with targeted interventions on producing solid analysis and preparatory work, developing capacity, and focusing on project development one can lay ground and catalyse sizable follow-on financial investments.

For example, the Western Africa Coastal Areas management program (WACA), with an initial funding of only slightly more than EUR 1 million together from NDF, WB and the Western African Economy and Monetary Union, one can already see an investment pipeline of more than USD 150 million. NDF wishes to focus on these types of activities that provide demonstration effects and lead into scaling-up and replication.