NEW DELHI: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) on Thursday got an accreditation from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) - a global multilateral fund that is meant to assist developing and poor countries in taking up their respective mitigation and adaptation measures to fight climate change.
Accreditation to the Nabard, means that the national financial institution will act as a channel through which the GCF will deploy its resources in India. It also makes the bank eligible to identify communities and areas which are most vulnerable to climate change and submit proposals to the Fund for financial support.
The funding will support a range of activities including installation of renewable (solar, wing and bio-mass) energy, enabling farmers to grow drought-resistant crops and reducing deforestation.
Besides Nabard, the GCF has, so far, accredited 19 other institutions from across the globe. It includes the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Germany-based Deutsche Bank AG, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) of France.
Seven of these institutions had got their accreditation in March while the other 13 entities including Nabard got it during the GCF board meeting at Songdo in South Korea on Thursday.
Institutions which were accredited in March have already started submitting initial project ideas and concept notes. Of these, nine proposals from nine different countries, including Thailand, Mali, Ethiopia and Rwanda, have been finalized.
"Seven months ago we invited institutions for the first time to become partners with us. Today, close to 100 well-established institutions from around the world are working towards becoming GCF accredited entities", said Hela Cheikhrouhou, executive director, GCF.
"We have added to this momentum by boosting our number of accredited entities to 20", she said while announcing the decision of the board.
