El Salvador – November 28 2016. An inter-ministerial Dialogue launched discussions on domestic climate finance needs for El Salvador’s NDC, and its closely linked National Climate Change Plan. Both Plans aim at decarbonizing El Salvador’s energy supply by increasing the use of renewable energy, while improving energy efficiency, land management, urban planning and transportation.
The dialogues took place as part of El Salvador’s larger effort to assess domestic funding sources for national climate targets through the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness Programme, bringing together El Salvador’s Technical and Planning Secretariat of the Presidency, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vice-Ministry of Cooperation for Development.
An assessment of investment and financial flows (I&FF) will help the Government of El Salvador determine domestic finance allocation and gaps for activities related to climate change. Carlos Gómez, Green Climate Fund Readiness Programme Coordinator, stressed the importance of capacity building through the assessment of investment and financial flows, identifying what shifts in domestic investments may be necessary, what additional investments will be required, and what policies and incentives will be needed to achieve the national climate change goals.
In preparation for the assessment, the national Climate Finance Committee has been carrying out consultations with a range of Ministries and institutions over the past months to select the five target sectors based on the INDC: Energy, Agriculture, Water, Infrastructure and Health. Participants agreed on the key parameters for the financial assessments, which is being rolled out both on the political as well as on the technical level over the coming months.
Following the inter-ministerial Dialogue, UNDP led a 3-day technical training for the investment and financial flows (I&FF) assessment, introducing the methodology to a team of more than 27 national and 3 regional experts from the target sectors and disciplines in public finance, private sector, economics and statistics, and NGOs and academia. The I&FF methodology will allow experts to systematically assess financial allocations for the NDC implementation by learning on how to break NDC targets down into specific action points, identify how financial flows can be structured more efficiently and determine the required level of financing for mitigation and adaptation measures.
Over the coming months the national experts will carry out the assessments with assistance from regional experts and UNDP.
More than 15 countries across the world have so far assessed investment and financial flows to address climate change, and have used the results to refine national budgetary planning; to strengthen national norms, standards & the legislative framework; as well as to move from climate planning to implementation.
The process is carried out under UNDP’s Green Climate Fund Readiness Programme, which aims to strengthen institutional and technical capacities to access climate finance, and runs in conjunction with El Salvador’s activities under the UNDP Low Emission Capacity Building Programme.