The African Development Bank (AfDB) board of directors has approved the creation of the Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF), a bilateral thematic trust fund to support African countries in their transition to climate-resilient and low-car- bon development, last month.

The AfDB will host and manage the ACCF, which was created with a €4 725-million con-tribution from Germany for an initial three-year period. The aim is to scale up to a multidonor trust fund as soon as one new donor commits to contributing to the fund.

AfDB energy, environment and climate change department director and AfDB climate change coordination committee chairperson Alex Ruga-mba states that the ACCF is critical for African countries.

“Africa is the most vulnerable continent to the impact of climate change, yet the region receives a very small share of climate finance, compared with other continents. I strongly believe it is the responsibility of the AfDB to help African coun-tries access international climate finance to sup- port their transition towards climate-smart devel- opment,” he says, adding that this fund will help facilitate countries’ access to the financing they need to protect their economies and environ-mental assets in the face of climate change.

On an international level, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has confirmed that 50% of its total allocation should target adaptation to climate change and that the most vulnerable countries – primarily African countries – will be given priority.

“There is a great opportunity for the AfDB to catalyse and channel more climate finance to Africa. The bank will continue to support the African members of the GCF board ahead of its next meeting and we are working on designing a partnership with the GCF to support African countries in preparation for accessing climate finance,” Rugamba adds.

He notes that many countries on the continent are ill-prepared to access international climate finance and need to devise plans to build a more climate-resilient and low-carbon future. The scope of the ACCF is broad enough to allow for a variety of activities that countries need for the transition to climate-smart devel-opment to generate transformational change in the medium to long term.

Specific areas of intervention include climate finance readiness, climate change and green- growth mainstreaming, the preparation and financing of adaptation and mitigation projects, knowledge management and information shar- ing related to climate change, capacity build-ing, the preparation of climate-resilient and low- carbon strategies and policies, as well as analyti-cal work involving green growth, advocacy and outreach.

The first call for proposals is expected to take place within the next two months and will focus on climate finance readiness.

ACCF grant recipients may include African governments and nongovernmental organisa-tions, as well as research institutions and regional institutions. Grants can be accessed by the recipients or by the AfDB on their behalf.

In line with the AfDB’s strategy for mobilising additional resources, the ACCF will complement the bank’s own resources and the multilateral funds for which the AfDB is an implementing agency.

The AfDB is progressively mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation into its development activities, with its 2013 to 2022 strategy emphasising the promotion of inclusive, and transitioning to, green growth.