The Adaptation Fund and how Germanwatch accompanies its work

The Adaptation Fund (AF) was established under the Kyoto Protocol of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes which should support adaptation of developing countries to the negative impacts of climate change. The AF has several unique features regarding the way it is owned, funded and governed. These give it the potential to contribute significantly to international cooperation on adaptation to climate change. Its innovative structure consisting of the large representation of developing countries in its board and its direct-access approach make it possible for the AF to be an alternative to the international landscape of conventional policy instruments.

Germanwatch, an environment and development NGO based in Germany which has for long been following the UN climate negotiations and international sustainable development issues, has been accompanying the Adaptation Fund since its beginning. As all meeting of the AF took place in Bonn, it was possible for Germanwatch to participate in all of them. We have been engaged in the development of the AF also through a number of information and lobby efforts, such as the coordination of letters sent to the Adaptation Fund Board by Climate Action Network International, a joint briefing with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and briefings on specific meetings.

Germanwatch: Watching the Adaptation Fund grow

The AF has almost taken shape and could be able as soon as possible to finance concrete adaptation projects proposals. It has the opportunity and responsibility to show how institutional innovations can rise to the challenge of adaptation.

Germanwatch envisages to contribute to a successful shaping of the Adaptation Fund in the interest of those people in developing countries being most vulnerable to climate change.

We are striving for a sustainable dynamic influence on politics and the engagement of civil society. Making the Adaptation Fund a model for the future will rely on the input and engagement of civil society both from developed and developing countries.

There are numerous ways how cooperation between NGOs can contribute to this objective:

Regular updates on relevant documents prior to or during the Adaptation Fund meetings,
Watching and assessing the development of, and proposition to the Adaptation Fund, of concrete adaptation projects and programmes,
Intensified partnership and exchange between NGOs from the north and south;
Improvement of the communication and cooperation between the NGOs and the accredited NIE (National Implementing Entities) or MIE (Multilateral Implementing Entities) of the countries with the Adaptation Fund,
Enhancing the partnership between the NGOs and their Focal Points.

last updated 1 November 2009