Locations8 November 2021, Bangkok— At the COP26, the United Kingdom announced £274 million for a new Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) programme. This 7-year programme will work with partners, including UNDP, to deliver projects in areas known to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities, economies and the environment to the impacts of climate change and promote low carbon growth across the Indo-Pacific.
Through the £20 million funding that it will receive through CARA, UNDP’s Climate Finance Network (CFN) in Asia and the Pacific will support 14 countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, Vanuatu and Viet Nam in their climate finance-related efforts over the next seven years.
UK Minister for Asia, Amanda Milling MP said:
“Climate change does not respect borders. Countries across the Indo-Pacific region are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with vulnerable communities threatened by rising seas, frequent typhoons and drought.
“This major new support from the UK will benefit communities across the region, helping people to build greater resilience to the impacts of climate change.”
“UNDP is very pleased to join FCDO’s new Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) initiative, which aims to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities, economies, and the environment, to the risks of climate change,” said Christophe Bahuet, UNDP’s Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.
“As part of CARA, UNDP’s Climate Finance Network will focus on assisting countries in their efforts to more effectively mobilize and utilize climate finance while promoting gender equality, human rights, and helping reduce poverty, to achieve the 2030 Agenda.”
The CFN project will catalyze CARA’s climate financing-related Thematic Partnership Programmes – one of the six climate-related thematic areas covered by the programme. It aims to support countries in strengthening the climate-responsiveness of their public financial management systems, which are keystones in achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda and more effectively tap into other sources of innovative and climate finance.
UNDP’s inclusion in the CARA initiative builds on a seven-year partnership between UNDP in Asia- Pacific and DFID (now FCDO), which started in 2014 to support successful initiatives at the local and national level to improve the mobilization, management, and targeting of climate change finance, throughout Asia and the Pacific.
***********************
BACKGROUND
About the Climate Finance Network
UNDP’s Bangkok Regional Hub hosted Climate Finance Network comprises experts specializing in SDG Finance, Governance, Development Finance and Political Economy, Climate Change, Public Financial Management and Development Effectiveness, Gender and Social Inclusion, Tax and Innovative Finance instruments, and the Modelling climate change impacts on economic growth, sectors and consideration of the distributional effects.
It also aims to leverage the collective expertise and experience of climate finance in the thirteen countries from the Asia-Pacific region to provide peer-to-peer support and to accelerate learning to contribute to achieving the vision of a resilient, sustainable and low-carbon future for our planet.
About the UNDP
UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crises and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.
About the CARA programme
Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) is a 7-year programme that will work with partners to deliver projects in areas known to strengthen climate resilience. This includes funding projects that mobilize climate finance, enhance water security, conserve natural ecosystems and biodiversity, and help vulnerable communities lead local adaptation efforts.
The CARA programme will explicitly strengthen the resilience of South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific countries, through a series of partnership programmes led by the UK Met Office, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
For additional information, please get in touch with Duarte Branco at duarte.branco@undp.org
* * *
