The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is establishing a Climate Change Project Preparation Fund to assist its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) in identifying and developing viable proposals to access climate finance, from the Bank and other international donor organisations.  

Despite significant vulnerability and considerable needs, Caribbean countries have had limited success in securing funding for climate action initiatives. Among the obstacles are the extensive prerequisites and project preparation necessary to qualify for concessional finance from development partners and multilateral climate funds.    

“Right now, climate finance flows to the Caribbean pale in comparison to the needs of the Region and a major barrier is the challenges we face putting together viable proposals because the process can be resource-intensive, and it can require specialised expertise.” Ms. Valerie Isaac, CDB’s Division Chief, Environmental Sustainability explained.    

“CDB’s Climate Change Project Preparation Fund will provide resources to develop and implement climate action projects which will enable the Region to mobilise climate finance at a much greater scale, which is necessary to achieve climate change adaptation and mitigation goals,” she added.    

The Fund will be central to CDB’s push to increase the climate funding available to the Region by addressing the implementation challenges faced by BMCs. A key objective will be improvement of the technical quality of climate change-related proposals to ensure initiatives are ‘implementation-ready’ and to strengthen the regional pipeline of projects through which climate finance can flow to BMCs for high-impact investments.    

CDB is currently financing preparatory work to institute the Fund. Initial undertakings will involve assessments of how similar mechanisms are managed by other international institutions including the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund and regional development banks. Best practices and key lessons from existing entities will inform the design and development a project preparation apparatus that meets the needs of CDB’s BMCs. A detailed framework for operationalising the Fund should be completed by the final quarter of 2024.