BELMOPAN: May 20, 2019: A team from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) visited the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) May 6-8 and May 14-15, 2019 while on a mission to Belize to strengthen its engagement with its partners.
During the visit, the GCF team comprising of Mr Keith Alger, Entity Relations Specialist; Dr Patrick Van Laake, Senior Ecosystems Management Specialist at GCF; and Mrs Neranda Maurice-George, Regional GCF Advisor for the Caribbean; held meetings with CCCCC’s executive director Dr Kenrick Leslie and senior officers from the Centre, to discuss and evaluate the progress and challenges of the Belize Readiness and other projects.
On Monday, May 6, the GCF Team accompanied by Dr Leslie, a team of officers from the Centre and Ambassador Yvonne Hyde, who serves as Belize’s National Designated Authority (NDA), visited the Arundo donax project site and the Belize Sugar Industry in Orange Walk, proposed site for a GCF Simplified Approval Process (SAP) project currently in the pipeline. While at the sugar Factory they witnessed the combustion of Arundo donax (wild cane) fibres at the Belize Cogeneration Energy Company (Belcogen).
The Arundo donax Renewable Energy Project in Belize was the Caribbean’s first project preparation facility (PPF) for which the GCF provided US$694,000 in grant funding to investigate the use of the wild cane as an alternative source of fuel.
During the visit to Orange Walk, the team also met with sugarcane growers’ associations and visited the Belize Sugar Industry (BSI) variety research lab, the Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute (SIRDI) and several farms. They heard ‘first-hand’ the climate change effects impacting sugarcane farmers and their families, as well as, observed ongoing efforts to address the impacts.
At a meeting at the CCCCC’s Belmopan offices on Tuesday, May 7, Dr Leslie expressed gratitude for the guidance provided by the GCF’s support team during the Centre’s accreditation process in 2015 and during the project development and approval processes. He noted the timeliness of the GCF Mission to Belize and voiced his satisfaction with what he saw at the various sites visited during the field trip, and the importance of the projects to help communities mitigate and adapt to climate change. He thanked the GCF for their continued support for project development, approval and implementation processes.
In addressing the Centre’s executive and senior officers, Dr Alger outlined the plan of engagement, noting that while in Belize, his team would provide an update on the revised GCF rules and processes. He provided information on the Fund’s role and its direction under the new GCF Executive Director, Mr Yannick Glemarec.
While in Belize the GCF reviewed and provided feedback on the Centre’s pipeline projects and other projects submitted for approval; explored areas for further collaboration and provided guidance on proposed collaborations between the CCCCC and its existing partners, while also setting the framework for and the agreement on a way forward in programming and the Centre’s readiness and re-accreditation.
Since February 2018, the CCCCC has received more than US$38.54 million in GCF grant funding for the implementation of Climate Change and readiness projects in several countries. These include the implementation of the WSRN S-Barbados Project, a project preparation grant for the Arundo donax Renewable Energy Project, and Country Readiness grants for Belize, Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
On Friday, May 10, 2019, the Centre launched the first single-country investment by the GCF in the Caribbean, Water Sector Resilience Nexus for Sustainability in Barbados (WSRN S-Barbados) project.
The CCCCC is a GCF direct-access Accredited Entity (AE) based in Belize
The GCF is a global fund created to support the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenges of climate change through a network of National Designated Authorities and Accredited Entities.
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