Roundup: ADB projects in Cambodia, Mongolia, Tajikistan get "green" funding

MANILA, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Friday it has secured 190 million U.S. dollars in total funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for its climate change projects in Cambodia, Mongolia, and Tajikistan, shoring up the bank's efforts to increase its climate financing for the Asia and Pacific region.

"ADB has an ambitious plan to provide annual climate financing of 6 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 from its own resources," said Bambang Susantono, ADB vice-president for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development.

"The funding from GCF will complement this effort and help our developing member countries address the effects of climate change and meet their commitments under the Paris climate agreement," Susantono added.

In 2017, the Manila-based ADB delivered over 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in climate finance from its own resources, of which 3.6 billion U.S. dollars was for mitigation and 930 million U.S. dollars for adaptation, and mobilized an additional 696 million U.S. dollars from external sources.

The ADB said the new funding, comprised of 85 million U.S. dollars in grants and 105 million U.S. dollars in concessional loans, was approved during the 19th meeting of the GCF board on February 27 to March 1 in Songdo, South Korea.

In Cambodia,the GCF will provide 30 million U.S. dollars in grant and 10 million U.S. dollars in loan to complement ADB's loan of 90 million U.S. dollars to help develop climate-friendly agribusiness value chains.

"GCF funds will be used for enhancing the resilience and productivity of target crops, rehabilitating production and post-harvest infrastructure to climate resilient condition, and for reducing the carbon footprint along the value chains by promoting solar and bioenergy," the ADB said.

In Mongolia, the GCF funding of 50 million U.S. dollars in grant and 95 million U.S. dollars in loan will supplement the 399 million U.S. dollars from ADB and other partners to provide Ulaanbaatar's peri-urban areas (ger areas) with 100 hectares of eco-districts that are low carbon, climate resilient, and livable and 10,000 green housing units that are energy efficient, affordable, and utilize renewable energy.

In Tajikistan, a GCF grant of 5 million U.S. dollars, combined with an equivalent grant from ADB, will support capacity building of the national weather forecasting entity, the State Agency for Hydrometeorology, to produce timely and accurate forecasting of climate-related extreme weather events.

The first GCF board meeting of 2018 approved 23 projects, valued together at 1 billion U.S. dollars of GCF funding.

ADB is one of 59 entities accredited to the GCF that can channel GCF resources to projects and programmes in developing countries. GCF, based in Songdo, South Korea, is a global fund created to support the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change. It was established in 2010 by 194 governments. Enditem