Continuing guidance to effective programme development & funding applications
By Climatekos
In 2018 Climatekos continues to provide guidance to public, private and civil society stakeholders in preparing effective funding applications, whilst ramping up its programme development services in partnership with others – (re)connecting our environmental and climate finance expertise with our project development experience. We begin the year with the preparation of two new guidebooks: A handbook on funding for blue economy projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, building on the climate finance handbook for the ClimaSouth project, and a guidebook developing the next generation of climate action projects or programmes to get Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) implementation off the ground.
The maritime economy, often referred to as the Blue Economy (BE) covers all marketable areas linked to the oceans, seas and coastal areas. The BE includes a wide variety of maritime sectors, including shipbuilding, maritime shipping, fisheries, aquaculture, mining of marine minerals, marine renewable energy and tourism. In the Mediterranean, over twenty different coastal states share a single maritime space, that comprises 30% of global sea-borne trade and a quarter of worldwide oil shipping. Bio-based industries drive multiple sectors in both the European Union (EU) and the Southern Mediterranean countries and provide livelihoods for large portions of the population. Over the next twenty years, investments in maritime shipping, offshore energy and tourism are expected to grow. The blue economy offers a means to unlock the economic potential of the Mediterranean maritime sector, while still protecting natural resources and ecosystem services. However, if such ventures are to reverse environmental degradation in the Mediterranean, investment must be channeled towards blue growth and sustainable activities - enabling governments to access financing for projects that are profitable, environmentally sustainable and that ensure long-term growth. Since 2012, the European Commission has been working on the growth of the BE, through the Integrated Maritime Policy for the Mediterranean (IMP-MED), whose objectives are to provide technical assistance to countries in the region for developing integrated approaches to maritime affairs. In response to a call for more information on how to access funding for blue economy projects from stakeholders in the Mediterranean, the Facility for Integrated Maritime Policy, BE and Climate Change (FacIMP/BE CC) requested Climatekos to develop a practical guidebook for financing BE projects. The guidebook will be another step-by-step guide to practitioners, focussing on the preparation and assessment of applications for blue economy funding.
Another guidebook will provide practical guidance for community-driven climate action, taking such guidance to the next level. This is about empowering rural communities and local development agents, such as CSOs and other expert organisations, developing complex climate action programmes at scale and contributing significantly to the implementation of NDCs. The opportunities to develop and finance adaptation and mitigation responses at the local levels to materialize national-level ambitions on the ground have become increasingly complex. Partnerships between local and international development experts and environmental finance experts are required to respond to these challenges. As part of its engagement in Uganda, Climatekos started to develop such new hands-on guidelines that will be introduced during workshops and trainings. The guidelines will be field tested by local development partners together with rural communities. Over the course of the next 3 years, this guidebook will be developed on the job, in conjunction with the implementation of demonstrations in a pilot project area, whilst training local experts to work with rural communities. In essence, this seeks to establish the technical foundations for scaling up and tapping into nationwide outreach mechanisms and networks of local development partners.
