The Belgian Development Cooperation allocates 25 million euros this year for combating climate change in Least Developed Countries

The contribution of € 15 million goes to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) of the Global Environment Facility. This fund focuses on supporting the Least Developed Countries in their fight against climate change. They are often the most vulnerable to climate change. Droughts, violent storms, sea-level rise and other consequences of our rapidly warming world are already impacting the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities.  The financing will be used to make communities more resilient to climate change, through new technologies for agriculture and water management among others.

The Belgian Development Cooperation focuses heavily on the Least Developed Countries. At the initiative of Minister De Croo, it was decided that Belgium will invest half of its international development budgets in the LDCs.

At least half of Belgian effort

The contribution to the Least Developed Countries Fund is an addition to a contribution of 10 million euros to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which was established within the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to help developing countries combat climate change. With this, Minister De Croo brings the total multilateral climate finance of the Belgian Development Cooperation to 25 million euros this year.

At the Paris Climate Conference (December 2015), Belgium committed to a yearly contribution of 50 million euros to international climate finance. Minister De Croo confirmed that the Belgian Development Cooperation is committed to account for at least half of the Belgian annual contribution for the period 2016-2020.

Besides multilateral climate finance, the Belgian Development Cooperation also invests in a whole range of bilateral projects and programmes on climate finance. Last year 34 million euros were allocated for this purpose.

National plans for climate adaptation

Since 2001, the LDCF already made $ 1 billion available. More than 180 adaptation projects in 51 Least Developed Countries benefited from this contribution. Twelve of these countries are small island states. GEF expects these projects to reduce the vulnerability of roughly 40 million people.

Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF: "This injection of new money from Belgium sends a positive signal about donor support for this critical fund that helps some of the most vulnerable countries in the world. Increased investment in adaptation is central to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement."

Alexander De Croo, Minister of Development Cooperation: "The poorest and most vulnerable countries are also likely to be the main victims of climate change. The advancing desertification and drought cause food and water shortages. The Belgian Development Cooperation is therefore taking the decision to use a part of its resources in the fight against climate change. If we want our development efforts in the Least Developed Countries to lead to improvements, we cannot close our eyes to the impact of climate change."