The GCF announced on April 30 that countries had missed a deadline to provide the contributions needed for the Fund to begin allocating money to developing countries.

“The Fund - which plays a key role in providing the financial resources needed to enable developing countries to move to low-emission and climate-resilient futures – received only US$ 4 billion equivalent in contributions by the 30 April 2015 deadline”, stated Friends of the Earth International in a press released issued on May 1st.

“The US$ 4 billion represents only 42 percent of the amount that was committed during the Fund’s initial pledging conference in 2014, while at least 50 percent of the funds, or US$ 4.7 billion, should have been legally committed in order for the GCF to be effective. In total, slightly less than US$ 10.2 billion has been pledged to the GCF over a 4-year period, which is about US$ 2.5 billion per year”, added the text. In total, developed countries are supposed to contribute US$ 100 billion annually by 2020 in climate finance.

Climate finance and the GCF should be essential components of an international climate agreement expected to be signed at the 21 Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will be held in Paris in December 2015.

During the conference “Seeding Climate Justice – Maputo Meeting on Real Solutions to the Climate Crisis”, held in this capital city of Mozambique from April 21-23, GCF´s Civil Society Active Observer, Meena Raman, from Friends of the Earth Malaysia and the Third World Network, gave a presentation about the GCF and its development so far.