Environment Ministry holds third regional workshop with State governments In an effort to provide hands-on training to State government officials for formulating and submitting proposals for accessing climate change finance under the National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC), Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Adaptation Fund Board (AFB), the Environment Ministry held the third regional workshop with State governments in Bengaluru on April 11-12, 2016. Fourteen States/Union Territories (U.T.s) from the southern and western regions of the country participated in the workshop. Inaugurating the workshop, Special Secretary, MoEF&CC, Shri Susheel Kumar, emphasized the need for generating good quality project proposals in a time-bound manner, which have full ownership by the State government departments. It is anticipated that the project benefits will continue to flow in a sustainable manner after project completion. The NAFCC was established in 2015 to assist National and State level activities to meet the cost of adaptation measures in areas that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. In 2015 under the NAFCC, twelve projects submitted by Punjab, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Telangana and Puducherry have been approved at a total cost of Rs. 235.17 Cr and Rs. 118.33 Cr. has already been released. GCF is a financial mechanism under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which aims to mobilize unprecedented levels of funding to invest in low-emission and climate-resilient development. The GCF Empowered Committee headed by Secretary, MoEF&CC approved, in principle, two project concept notes of Government of Odisha and Government of Haryana with a total project cost of USD 31.63 million (Rs. 211 Cr.) and USD 46.39 million (Rs. 310 Cr.) respectively in 2015-16. It is expected that the participants will acquire the requisite knowledge and expertise for preparing the good quality adaptation and mitigation projects for NAFCC and GCF for their respective States by May 15, 2016. Senior State government officials from Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka participated in the workshop. This workshop was organised jointly by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Implementing Entity for National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC) and Green Climate Fund (GCF). The discussions were guided by Joint Secretary, MoEF&CC Shri Ravi S. Prasad and Deputy Managing Director, NABARD Shri R. Amalorpavanathan. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has been organizing regional workshops to support the State governments to proactively pursue climate change adaptation and mitigation and building their capacity for accessing climate change finance from domestic and international sources. The first workshop had been organized in January this year in Guwahati, Assam, for the eight States of the North Eastern region and the second in February in Patna, Bihar, for four States in the eastern region of the country.
