UN Green Climate Fund opens HQ in South Korea

LEGAZPI CITY – The headquarters of the United Nations Green Climate Fund (UNGCF) formally opened today at the G-Tower, Songdo, Incheon City in South Korea in anticipation of the operationalization of the Fund next year.

Albay Governor Joey Sarte Salceda joined other dignitaries like co-chair of the UNGCF, joined co-chair Manfred Konukiewitz; Hela Cheikhrouhou, GCF executive director; Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group president; Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund managing director; Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC executive secretary; Oh-Seok Hyun, Finance Deputy Minister of the Republic of Korea; and Mayor Song Young Gil of Incheon Metropolitan City in gracing the occasion.

The inauguration of the UNGCF headquarters coincided with the observance of “Climate Finance Week” during the first week of December this year as designated by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance of the Republic of Korea.

The Republic of Korea also hosts within the week the Global Forum on Using Country Systems to Manage Climate Change Finance and the Climate Finance, and the Private Sector: Investing in New Opportunities Conference.

UNGCF was established by the conference of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2011 which intends to make a significant and ambitious contribution to the global efforts towards attaining the goals set by the international community to combat the challenges and implications of climate change, especially among developing countries.

The Fund will contribute to the achievement of the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the context of sustainable development.

The Fund will promote the paradigm shift towards the low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways in providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emission and to adapt to the impacts of climate change, taking into account the needs of those developing countries particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

It can be recalled that Salceda was elected co-chair of the US$ 100-billion GCF during its fifth meeting held in Paris, France, on Oct. 7-10, 2013 with the unanimous support of representatives from developing countries.

Salceda said the 24-member GCF board oversees the operation of the Fund, which has pledges of US$ 100 billion by 2020, and approves the funding of projects in line with the Fund’s principles, criteria, modalities, policies and programs.

He said the Fund should prompt positive consequences in the lives of ordinary people.

Salceda furthered that some developed nations such as Germany, Norway, Sweden, Austria and United Kingdom have the possibilities of remitting a total of more or less US$ 14 billion as part of their pledges the US$ 100-billion to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund (GCF) next year.

With 2014 as the target for the operationalization of the Fund, Salceda set the goal to make the Fund work for developing countries, including small islands, developing states, least developed countries, Africa and highly vulnerable communities in countries like the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh.