EU`s contribution to tackle climate change in developing countries

EU Commissioner Neven Mimica launched on 29 October 2015 the new phase of the Global Climate Change Alliance partnership between the EU and the most vulnerable developing countries to fight climate change.

EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, launched a new phase of the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA), called Global Climate Change Alliance plus (GCCA+), which will run until 2020. The GCCA+ is set to become one of Europe`s key tools to assist the world`s most vulnerable developing countries in addressing global climate change.

Around €350 million of EU funds will be made available until 2020 for the GCCA+, in addition to the private and national public investments that this financial support is expected to leverage.

Commissioner Neven Mimica said: "It is a top priority for the EU to assist the most vulnerable countries in their efforts to adapt to climate change and at the same time to transit to green and sustainable economies. There are encouraging success stories which we will replicate and take further over the next years." 

Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete said: "This is a great initiative which shows that EU is scaling up climate finance to help the most vulnerable countries take action against climate change. And it also sends a clear signal ahead of Paris: the EU stands by its commitments and is ready to continue to do its part."

This announcement comes ahead of COP21 Conference, when global leaders from around the world will gather in Paris in December 2015 to reach an agreement tackling one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century – climate change.

The GCCA+ is one of the EU`s major contributions to the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) that calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impact, and to the upcoming COP21 Climate Conference. This AAAA, in combination with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – which includes climate action as Sustainable Development Goal 13 – will guide international development and cooperation for the next fifteen years.

Background
Since 2007, the GCCA supported 51 programmes in 38 countries and 8 regions during its very first phase. With today`s launch of a second phase of the GCCA (the GCCA+), the EU will continue to provide technical cooperation on climate change to the least developed countries (LDCs) and to small island developing states (SIDS), enabling them also to have their voices heard in the international climate negotiations.
The GCCA+ launch event is being organised by the European Commission. It brings together around 120 participants, including governments and cooperation institutions from the 28 EU Member States, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific, EU Institutions and EU Delegations staff, civil society organisations, local authorities, the private sector and decision-makers involved in the implementation of climate change policies, programmes and projects.

Examples of GCCA projects 
1. GCCA Bhutan – this is an ambitious projectthat supports Bhutan in enhancing the resilience of rural households to the effects of climate change and the readiness of the renewable natural resources. With the help of the GCCA, Bhutan has submitted an impressive Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the future Paris Agreement on 30 September 2015 to the United Nations Framework – Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat. As per its INDC, Bhutan reconfirms its target to remain carbon neutral, by ensuring that the country`s emission of greenhouse gases does not exceed the sink capacity of its forests. The GCCA also helps Bhutan to deliver its INDC commitment to maintain as a minimum of 60 percent of land area under forest cover (currently 70%).

2. The Chololo ecovillage in Dodoma, Tanzania, aims to strengthen the capacity of vulnerable rural communities in semi-arid areas of Central Tanzania to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. Specifically, the project has helped identify and share a wide range of innovative adaptation technologies; support the village community to agree and implement a solid framework of land use plans and natural resource management principles and practices; empower women to act at the forefront of the transformation, with increased authority and reduced workload; increase household food security and incomes, and improve livelihoods.