DRAFT: Opportunity to Substantially Increase Funding for Climate Action in Developing Countries
Section A. Main Section
1) Narrated Video of Presentation:
Due to a slowing global economy and having experienced significant adverse impacts of climate change, many developing countries are in need substantially increased funding to be able to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). As well, there is an urgent need to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions since they are continuing to rise at a rapid rate. At COP27, the Parties have agreed to establish a fund for responding to loss and damage but it will take a considerable amount of time before funds can be disbursed by this new fund.
It has been reported that a new “transitional committee” for this new fund will present its recommendations “for consideration and adoption” at the COP28 summit in Dubai. If an agreement is reached on financial commitments at COP28, additional time will be needed to step up the new fund administration, consider the loss and damage claims and then pay these claims. For a comparison of the time it takes to set up a new international fund, one can consider the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which was established under the Cancún Agreements in 2010. The GCF indicates on its website that it approved its first project for funding in 2015.
Along with loss and damage compensation, developing countries are requesting funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The total amount of compensation requested is unprecedented. For example, the total amount of funding requested by several countries in Africa is $1,300 billion per year by 2030 for all developing countries, which is about a 13-fold increase over the existing (but not yet delivered) promises of compensation by developed countries. Therefore, there is a massive gap regarding climate-related funding from developed countries* to developing countries.
At COP27, it was reported that no deal on emissions reduction was reached due to stonewalling by ‘large emitters and oil producers’ to phase-out fossil fuels. Since these large emitters and oil producers rely on fossil fuels for a major portion of their respective economies, it does not seem likely that they will agree to a phase-out of fossil fuels at any time soon. Fortunately, as a result of rapid innovation in climate solutions, a major opportunity has emerged scale-up greenhouse gas emissions mitigation and carbon removal in all countries. Implementing this opportunity can help address the need for both large-scale emissions mitigation and the developing countries’ urgent need for more funding.
Since virtually all countries agree on the need for rapid large-scale emissions mitigation and many major companies have committed to achieving Net Zero emissions, there should be considerable support for developing countries to receive increased funding so they can implement NDCs. This outline provides a summary of a possible pathway to help reach an agreement on this needed funding for developing countries.
A proven climate solution that removes carbon from the atmosphere, generates considerable benefits, and can be implemented on a global scale, is biochar. This product is produced from biomass in an oxygen-limited environment and is already being produced by many different organizations. Since producing biochar from biomass and incorporating it into soil is an internationally recognized way of removing carbon from the atmosphere, substantial money can be earned by creating this biochar.
Even more beneficial than incorporating only biochar in soil is to combine it with nutrients and then place it in soil. For example, one study found that biochar combined with compost increased average crop yield by 40% compared with the control, which was compost without biochar. There has been a wide range of studies completed about biochar that have documented its substantial benefits, especially when combined with other nutrients. One notable discovery from this research is that the increase in crop yield is often even greater in the second and third year after adding this biochar to soil.
A major initiative called Biochar Life by Warm Heart Worldwide is underway to help smallholder farmers to receive payment for producing biochar. Therefore, small-holder farmers that generate and utilize biochar can earn money from this biochar as well as grow more food. To view more information about biochar and the opportunity to implement it on a global scale, visit this webpage we created: Biochar Overview: What it is, its benefits and an opportunity to scale it globally. This webpage includes this photo showing comparison plots of growing food with and without biochar:
Both these carbon removal methods will generate ongoing revenues for developing countries. Most of the money can be provided by private companies purchasing carbon credits to achieve their Net Zero emission goals. Therefore, most of the funding needed for ongoing operations of these carbon removal methods will not need to be provided by the governments of developed countries. Given below is a list of some organizations related to Biochar:
- Biochar Life
- NetZero
- Member Directory of the International Biochar Initiative
- SIANI webpage about an Expert Group Relating to African Biochar.
There are many more technologies that can be implemented on a large-scale in many developing countries with funding from developed countries and the private sector that will create substantial benefits for these developing countries. Given below are some examples of these technologies:
a1) An innovative algae growing system that produces healthy food-grade oils on a substantial scale by Global Algae Innovations, which received a million-dollar Carbon Removal XPRIZE for this technology. This company calculates that their technology can be scaled up to produce enough healthy food-grade oil so that this oil can replace all the palm tree oil production, which would enable the areas containing these palm trees to be able to be returned to back to ecologically diverse rainforests. If this did occur, billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide would be captured each year as these rainforests grew back.
a2) A new bio-fertilizer process replaces traditional nitrogen fertilizer for agriculture. When utilized, it eliminates substantial greenhouse gas emissions associated with this traditional nitrogen fertilizer. This bio-fertilizer was developed by Kula Bio, which is planning commercial production by the end of 2023. A competing bio-fertilizer is produced by Pivot Bio, which indicates that their microbes deliver more than 90% reduction in GHG emissions.
a3) Cactus farming can capture a substantial amount of carbon from the atmosphere while producing valuable products. There is already substantial cactus farming occurring in the world using different species of cacti with several groups advocating for a large scale-up of this type of farming. For example, Regeneration International is promoting its Billion Agave Campaign, which is to plant one billion agaves globally to draw down and store one billion tons of CO2. The International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) promotes the growing of spineless cactus pear (nicknamed the “green-gold”) as a source of fodder for livestock.
a4) Bamboo rapidly sequesters carbon in biomass and soil and can thrive on degraded lands. Long-lived bamboo products can store carbon over time. Video: Bamboo Harvesting and Manufacturing in a $100 Billion Industry. For more info, see: Bamboo Production by Project Drawdown.
For a more comprehensive list of technologies that can create considerable benefits for developing countries while substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, visit: Carbon Tech Companies and Related Information.
To view a table of selected solutions that mitigate climate change and provide co-benefits, which can be implemented in developing countries on a large scale, visit: Selected Climate Solutions that Mitigate Climate Change and Provide Co-benefits. This table includes estimates of carbon emissions reduced and/or sequestered of 19 climate solutions with co-benefits. This estimate includes solutions advocated by Project Drawdown through their Drawdown Lift initiative. The estimated impact of these solutions if they were implemented globally is in the range of 26 billion tonnes per year of CO2 reduced and/or sequestered. According to the Global Carbon Project, global CO2 emissions in 2022 were estimated to be about 40.6 billion tonnes per year. Therefore, if these climate solutions were implemented on a global scale, their impact would be very substantial.
The Drawdown Lift initiative advocates for 28 climate solutions that have multiple benefits such as boosting well-being, strengthening resilience, and contributing to poverty alleviation in rural communities. To view a fact sheet about the Drawdown Lift initiative, visit Drawdown Lift Fact Sheet.
There are now several climate solutions that can be implemented in developing countries on a substantial scale that will significantly increase the flow of money to these countries to create valuable products while substantially reducing carbon emissions. This opportunity is creating a possible pathway to reach this agreement. A one-sentence summary of a key component of this pathway is as follows:
“Developed countries fund a substantial scale-up of climate solutions in developing countries that mitigate climate change as well as providing significant co-benefits.”
7) Some Notable Funding Sources for Climate Solutions with Co-benefits:
- The Catalytic Climate Finance Facility (CC Facility) has issued a special call for ideas targeting climate adaptation for agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
- Philanthropy For Climate initiative with 635 member foundations committed to act on climate.
- Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) is a $58 million impact fund and the world’s first equity fund designed to build the climate resilience of smallholder farmers.
- The Canada – African Development Bank Climate Fund (CACF) is designed to embed gender equality principles in projects, particularly for the empowerment of women and girls.
- The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) is a $220 million global multilateral fund dedicated to reducing food insecurity and poverty in low-income countries
- WorldBank funded $700 million for Nigeria’s Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project.
Funding from developed countries to developing countries, which is used to finance substantial (US$50m+) facilities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, can be refinanced by Green Bonds once these facilities are built and generate income. If a facility is refinanced with Green Bonds, the owner of this facility can use the money it receives from Green Bonds to finance its next facility. Therefore, the initial funding from developing countries to build an initial facility can lead to multiple facilities being built over time.
According to the ClimateBonds Initiative, over $500 billion in Green (Climate) Bonds were issued in 2021. This organization is now leading an initiative to increase this amount to $5 trillion in Green Bonds by 2025. There is a large pool of buyers of Green Bonds in the global financial system. For example, the members of The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which includes firms that collectively have over US$130 trillion under management, are likely buyers of this type of bond.
For more information, visit Climate Finance Resources Relating to Africa (climatesan.org/cfra ).
8) Free Resources to Create More Awareness about Climate Solutions in Developing Countries:
Given below are some key points about CharityHelp’s Expanding Free Access to Offline Educational Resources Initiative:
- CharityHelp’s initiative helps individuals and organizations to convert old personal computers to offline educational information servers using apps such as Kolibri by Learning Equality and Kiwix.
- These offline educational information servers can serve a wide range of educational content in multiple languages to nearby smartphones, tablets and personal computers via WiFi.
- ClimateSAN has created an educational information package in Kolibri about selected climate solutions with co-benefits. It can be downloaded using the Kolibri App with this code: kiton-katin & c4a018114a3848e8960459c6359d93ca
- We have created an educational information package about selected climate solutions with co-benefits that can be shared widely via the Kolibri app.
- This initiative supports Project Drawdown’s Family Planning and Education solution, which advocates for universal access to quality education for all children, and voluntary family planning for all girls, women, and couples.
- Kiwix contains an electronic book that includes Wikipedia articles about climate change.
9) Africa Climate Action Initiative by the Canada Africa Partnership Network
If people in Canada want help facilitate more climate action Africa, they can join the Africa Climate Action Initiative (ACAI), which is being implemented by the Canada Africa Partnership (CAP) Network. CAP Network facilitates partnerships between Canadian and African communities, providing capacity building and resources in support of locally-led development projects.
ACAI is also supported by the Pan African Centre for Climate (PACC) Policy.
10) Conclusions
There is an opportunity to substantially increase funding for climate action in developing countries. Given below are some key reasons why we feel this opportunity has emerged:
- A slowing global economy and the significant adverse impacts of climate change is creating more awareness that many developing countries need substantially increased funding to be able to implement their NDCs and cope with the global food crisis.
- Growing awareness that global carbon emissions continue to rise at a rapid rate, which is in-turn creating more understanding that climate action needs to be implemented at a much faster rate.
- There are many climate solutions with co-benefits that can be implemented in developing countries that can substantially reduce carbon emissions (26B+ Tons) and improve the lives of people there.
- There is an opportunity to share information about climate solutions widely in developing countries through low-cost offline educational information servers that can serve this information via WiFi to smartphones, tablets and computers.
- The Nigerian Government can play a key role in facilitating the funding of demonstration projects that include climate solutions with co-benefits.
- Individual proposal writers and organizations in Canada can collaborate with organizations Nigeria to prepare proposals to implement selected climate solutions. The Canada Africa Partnership Network’s Africa Climate Action Initiative (ACAI) can facilitate this collaboration.
11) Recommendations for Proposal Writers
If you are a proposal writer and would like to help scale-up of climate solutions with co-benefits in developing countries, I recommend you to consider the following:
- Become more familiar about climate solutions with co-benefits by visiting the webpage outlined at the end of this presentation and and visiting the Drawdown Lift section of Project Drawdown’s website.
- View content from our offline educational information server that is setup at this conference. If you are not at this conference, visit: Kolibri Demonstration Server or CharityHelp.org/kdemo.
- If you want to help implement climate action in Africa, consider joining Canada Africa Partnership Network’s Africa Climate Action Initiative (ACAI).
- Consider preparing your own proposals for selected climate solutions or helping other organizations prepare these proposals.
- Research likely funders of your proposal or proposals and then send these potential funders a letter of inquiry about your proposed project. If you receive a positive response from a potential funder, send your proposal to this funder.
12) Closing Comment
If developed countries do agree to fund the opportunity outlined above (implement Carbon Tech and renewable energy in developing countries) on a large scale, it could help these countries find a way to reach an agreement on the overall climate-related funding for developing countries including adaptation and loss and damage. If this did occur, the results would create a better future for us all.
Section B. Additional info section:
1) Given below is some information about writing letters of inquiry (LOI):
a) Instrumentl.com: How to Write a Letter of Inquiry for Grant Funding
b) LiveAbout.com: How to Write a Letter of Inquiry to a Foundation
c) Candid.org: What should be included in a letter of inquiry?
d) GetFullyFunded.com: How to write a killer Letter of Inquiry (LOI) to get a grant
2) Given below is some information about writing grant proposals:
b) GRANT NEWS, RESOURCES: How to Write a Grant Application: Our Top 10 Tips for Success, Sep. 28, 2022
c) 19 Tips for Stronger Grant Proposals, Oct. 24, 2022
d) Secrets to writing a winning grant, Experienced scientists reveal how to avoid application pitfalls to submit successful proposals, Dec. 20, 2019
d) GRANT WRITING DO’S & DON’TS, ACCORDING TO AN EXPERT, Nov. 08, 2021
e) 7 Tips for Writing an Effective Grant Proposal By Sarah Hubbart
4) Carbon capture with algae:
An innovative new company is now capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide with algae in seawater in a coastal desert area in Morocco. The company name is Brilliant Planet and it is currently in the process of scaling up its operations. This company expects it can capture and sequester carbon dioxide at scale for less than $50/tonne and has already identified a shortlist of flat coastal areas that could be utilized to capture 2-billion tonnes of this greenhouse gas per year. Shown below is an image of their facility in Morocco, which is the world’s largest algae growth pond:
