The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved $1.97 billion for 21 climate projects at its 46th board meeting, the largest amount the fund has ever approved at a single meeting, the fund said as the four-day meeting closed at its Songdo headquarters in South Korea on Thursday, October 29.
Source: Green Climate Fund
Executive Director Mafalda Duarte told Reuters the approvals take the fund's total funding for 2026 to a record level, including $682 million for six private-sector initiatives, as the world's biggest multilateral climate investment fund tries to mobilise more private capital for every dollar it invests.
Source: Reuters
Yaani: $1.97 billion means about 197 crore dollars approved in one meeting alone, and the fund's full portfolio of $22.3 billion is about 2,230 crore dollars — rising to $87.3 billion, yaani about 8,730 crore dollars, once partner co-financing is counted, according to the fund.
The board also accredited 16 new partner agencies, and national and local institutions known as Direct Access Entities will manage 34 per cent of the funding approved at the meeting. Five of the projects are the first single-country projects for their countries — Algeria, Cameroon, which received two, Moldova and Yemen — the fund said.
Money ahead of COP31
The approvals land days before the COP31 climate talks open in Turkey in early November, and against a difficult political backdrop in which richer countries face pressure over how much climate money they commit. As the fund prepares for its third replenishment round, Duarte said a first-ever policy allowing contributions from non-government and alternative sources could widen its funding base beyond national governments, Reuters reported.
The fund said it has historically mobilised about $3 of additional resources for every $1 it invests, and $4.5 for its private-sector projects. It works through a network of 193 accredited partner agencies with projects in more than 130 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.
India is among the largest recipients of international climate finance, and funds of this size shape what reaches farms and cities facing hotter summers, erratic monsoon rain and flood risk — the same pressures Punjab's farmers deal with every season. Bigger GCF approvals mean more projects competing for the same pool, so the quality of proposals states and institutions file will decide who actually receives the money.