DEVELOPING countries could begin to draw down on the Adaptation Fund after March this year, to help shore up their resilience to the effects of changing climate.

Those effects include rising global temperatures and the associated risk of diseases, such as dengue and malaria; rising sea levels and sea surface temperatures which threaten coastal lives and livelihoods respectively; and more extreme weather events such as hurricanes and droughts.

“We are progressing very well, especially bearing in mind that this is a new instrument and we have to design it from scratch. We are now a stone’s throw away from calling for projects and programmes to be submitted for funding,” Jeffrey Spooner, the Group of Latin America and Caribbean Countries’ (GRULAC) representative told Environment Watch at the United Nations Climate Conference meeting in December.

One of the things that is left to be done in preparation for the start of disbursement of funds, he said, is the accreditation of national implementing entities, which will facilitate developing countries’ access to the funds.

“One of the things that we still have to do is for the national implementing entities to submit their applications for accreditation. We are hoping that at least we would have some entities that are accredited by the meeting in March so that we can call for submission of projects to be funded,” he added.

The Adaptation Fund was operationalised at the 2007 climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia. Funded with two per cent of earnings from projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, it is intended help finance the adaptation needs of developing countries.

CDM projects, such as Wigton Wind Farm in Jamaica, are designed to address the sustainability needs of developing countries such as Jamaica and other islands of the Caribbean, while generating greenhouse gas emission credits to satisfy the commitments of developed countries. Under Kyoto, several developed countries committed to a maximum eight per cent increase in greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, which is fuelling global warming.

To be accredited, Spooner said that the national implementing entity must:

* establish fudiciary standards;

* demonstrate accountability; and

* demonstrate competence to manage programmes.

Among the entities in Jamaica that could possibly qualify as a national implementing entity are the National Environment and Planning Agency, the Planning Institute of Jamaica and possibly the Ministry of Finance.

“We want an entity that is broad-based and involved in planning so that we have a holistic view of what the climate change adaptation plans are,” said Spooner. “They [can also be] in a position where they can also develop projects and have them endorsed by the focal point (which in Jamaica is the Met Office) for funding.”

The national implementing entity, he added, will not necessarily implement projects.

“They are not necessarily the ones executing the project. They will manage the funds. They are the ones accountable to the Adaptation Fund Board whereas the executing agency is the one that will do the project. They are responsible to the national implementing entity,” he said.

As at September 16, 2009, the World Bank has sold 1.3 million CERs (certified emissions reduction credits), generating revenues of approximately US$18.7 million for the fund. By 2012, the fund is projected to have US$500 million in its coffers, a sum Spooner describes as “woefully inadequate” given the level of need in developing countries, which stand to be worse affected by the changing climate.

Against this background, Spooner, also one of Jamaica’s senior climate change negotiators, said there are efforts afoot to have the fund financed through additional sources.

“I have called for significant contributions from the developed countries into the Adaptation Fund. And there are other calls for funding from other sources, for example, through a levy on the Joint Implementation Mechanism (which sees emissions reductions projects undertaken within the developed world),” he said.

Spooner said that there have also been calls for money from the Quick Start Fund to be channelled into the Adaptation Fund. At the December talks in Copenhagen, developed countries committed to “provide new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions, approaching US$30 billion for the period 2010 – 2012 with balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation”.

Whether that money will go to the Adaptation Fund is not yet clear.