Land and Climate: European Commission and GM target action
5 June, 2009
The European Commission (EC) has adopted a proposal developed by the Global Mechanism (GM) as part of its 2009 Annual Action Programme. The proposal targets boosting countries’ capacity to address the double scourge of climate change and land degradation. The EC is to allocate a grant of Euro 2.3 million for the implementation of the priority action, “Integrating Climate Change Finance into Sustainable Land Management Investment Strategies” to support countries in ensuring sustained, adequate investment flows into sustainable land management (SLM,) through increased co-finance from climate change financing mechanisms.
The contribution is being made under EC’s “Environment and sustainable management of natural resources including energy” (ENRTP) thematic programme for the period 2007-2010. This four-year strategy dedicates resources to support developing countries and partner organizations in addressing environmental and natural resource management issues related to combating climate change, tackling land degradation and desertification, and protecting biodiversity.
The GM strongly advocates such a comprehensive approach that generates cross-cutting environmental benefits by addressing climate change and land degradation in tandem, as pursued by the ENRTP strategy and EC’s Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) objectives.
Indeed, through the priority action, “Integrating Climate Change Finance into Sustainable Land Management Investment Strategies”, the GM will seek to support countries through the following specific objectives:
- efficiently integrate climate change related financing into national processes leading to investment frameworks supporting SLM;
- build capacity to identify, formulate and implement financially feasible mitigation and adaptation projects in the agricultural, rural and land use sectors to benefit SLM and UNCCD implementation; and
- make available expertise and knowledge on the applicability of current and/or emerging adaptation and mitigation financing mechanisms in developing countries to support the international UNCCD and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) policy dialogue.
For more information:
Mr Alejandro Kilpatrick
Coordinator, Climate Change Programme
Tel. +39 06 5459 2524
a.kilpatrick@global-mechanism.org
Ms Saveis Joze Sadeghian
Advisor, Climate Change Programme
Tel. +39 06 5459 2625
s.sadeghian@global-mechanism.org
Related Links
GM Climate Change Finance Programme