A fund co-managed by WRI mobilized $46.5 million to help resource-strapped countries set and implement ambitious climate action plans.
The Challenge
As part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries committed to produce national action plans. These plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing adaptation and resilience, and increasing climate finance.
The scale of technical and financial assistance needed to realize NDCs is massive. International resources are often slow to mobilize in response to countries’ needs.
WRI’s Role
WRI, along with the UN Office for Project Services, serves as a fund manager for the NDC Partnership Action Fund, created by the NDC Partnership to fast-track the implementation of low-income countries’ NDCs.
Since its launch in November 2021, the Partnership Action Fund has pooled $46.5 million from nine countries — Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States — to fill critical gaps in support to poorer nations, ensuring no country is left behind in the low-carbon transition.
WRI’s efficient and robust operational and financial processes enabled NDC Partnership’s member institutions to swiftly access grant agreements, supporting countries’ otherwise unfunded climate action. WRI also deployed 21 embedded advisors and in-country facilitators to help governments advance climate policies and integrate NDCs into their national plans and budgets.
The Outcome
The Partnership Action Fund has helped more than 50 countries begin turning NDC targets into reality.
As of January 2024, the NDC Partnership disbursed $16.4 million to 54 nations — more than half of which are least developed countries or small island developing states — as well as one regional organization. This support is catalytic, helping to complement and unlock the $1.7 billion in support provided to low-income countries directly by NDC Partnership members.
Grants and expertise help countries increase the ambition of their NDCs, accelerate their implementation, mobilize more finance, and mainstream climate action plans and sustainability goals into national planning frameworks and budgets. For example, Antigua and Barbuda, Burkina Faso, Cambodia and Nepal leveraged Partnership Action Fund grants to enhance their monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure climate action is also enhancing gender equality. Other countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Dominican Republic and Grenada funding for communications strategies and training tools for awareness-raising and knowledge-sharing.
Laos officials used funds to organize a workshop with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to better coordinate low-carbon, climate-resilient transportation solutions. And Grenada developed investment plans for its energy, transport, waste and forestry sectors, as well as create a public website about its NDC and climate change.