Martin Endjala
A new window of opportunity has opened for more entities seeking accreditation and access to climate change projects, as four entities have been nominated by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) project.
This comes after the National Designated Authority (NDA) for climate finance, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism strengthened national capacity to coordinate the implementation of the Green Climate Fund funding in the country.
The nominated entities are Bank Windhoek, Development Bank of Namibia, Agricultural Bank and Namibia Nature Foundation.
With the accreditation of the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF) to the Green Climate Fund in 2016 and subsequent re-accreditation in October 2021, the rationale for nominating the four entities is said to be based on the fact that the Development Bank of Namibia once accredited, would potentially access financing for larger climate change infrastructure investments such as renewable energy, resilient infrastructure, amongst other areas in the developmental focus.
Bank Windhoek would potentially also access finance from the private sector facility under the Green Climate Fund for on-lending to the private sector, similar to that of the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance (SUNREF) project.
The project was administered through the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia which provided a line credit to the tune of €45 million to green finance, climate resilience and improved self-sufficiency in terms of energy, through the banking system and for the private sector.
In addition to this, the Agricultural Bank of Namibia would potentially also access finance for on-lending in the agriculture sector.
“The Namibia Nature Foundation, one of the oldest environmental Non-Governmental Organisations in Namibia, would also access finance in ecosystem management and most importantly occupy the micro category should EIF upgrade to a small category,” the Investment Fund’s spokesperson, Lot Ndamanomhata said in a statement.
He said that despite the leadership of the country being able to obtain international climate finance, and due to limited institutional and technical capacities prevailing in local institutions, nominated entities are unable to complete accreditation requirements as per Green Climate Fund’s standards and provide the needed services of accessing climate finance.
In the long-term, this will affect the scale at which Namibia can access climate finance and implement its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and contribute to the global goal of the 1.5°C temperature.
“As such the country needs to strengthen the competencies, skills and procedures of the identified four entities so that further projects can be developed and contribute towards the NDC’s goals,” Ndamanomhata said.
It is against this background that the National Designated Authority has established a climate finance working group, whose key collective responsibility is to develop bankable project proposals in fulfilment of the Nationally Determined Contributions targets.
He further said that one of the key partners in this capacity-building program is ‘Towards an Inclusive Design of the Renewable Energy Transition project, an initiative led by the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia under the Climate Change and Inclusive Use of Natural Resources Project of the Environment Ministry.
Administered through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, as part of its key objectives, the project aims to facilitate the formulation of evidence-based, gender-sensitive Nationally Determined Contribution projects and business models for climate action on adaptation and mitigation and subsequently facilitate stakeholder dialogues with the private and public sectors to support investment into climate action at various platforms.
The project continues to provide capacity development support to not only those entities pursuing accreditation but also to those institutions that are actively pursuing climate finance resources, in fulfilment of the Nationally Determined Contribution targets.
So far, the project has availed support funds to the tune of €10,000 to institutions to finalize their Concept Notes formulated during the Climate Finance Training Sessions to bankability and further catalyze the submission of such to a funding organization.
He noted that with such commitments there will be an increase in Namibia’s access to climate finance for the achievement of its NDC ambition through, strengthening the capacities of local institutions.
Additionally, the ultimate goal of this support will be that the country will be developing context-specific climate solutions for its citizens by Namibia, For Namibia.
“Gone are the days when Namibia relied mostly on external and international experts to develop bankable project proposals,” Ndamanomhata said.
