CCAP joins calls to focus on green finance during COP26

The Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) joins the call to make COP26 a “turning point” for climate finance, shifting capital flows to prevent the most catastrophic effects of global warming.

Climate experts, activists, and policymakers, including UN Secretary General António Guterres, are calling on climate ministers and negotiators at COP26 to clarify climate finance articles in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement and to increase climate finance commitments from the world’s wealthiest nations.

CCAP, with its 35 years of expertise in advising and forming policy discussions, is uniquely positioned to facilitate the flow of climate finance to high-need countries. The organization’s recently formalized Climate Finance Program brings together decades of climate finance experience with a broad network of climate finance experts in order to actualize the solutions that are required right now.

“The climate crisis demands action, and we are proud that we are able to offer solutions to governments and entities that are seeking to turn ideas into projects across a broad range of mitigation and adaptation actions,” says CCAP executive director Allison Bender Corbett. “Our successful projects, shepherding stakeholders through the proposal process to the final project design, help turn words and pledges into specific, quantitative carbon reductions and quality-of-life improvements.”

In order to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate, stakeholders need to facilitate and implement specific, on-the-ground actions, with investments guided by best practices and quantifiable carbon-saving measures.

CCAP’s experience advising and forming policy discussions allows the organization to facilitate connections between the policy level and the project level, between donors and governments, and between the private sector and policymakers. CCAP has worked with a wide range of funders, non-governmental agencies, and stakeholders, as well as with country governments across five continents, to target the best pathways toward project funding, approval, implementation, and success.

“CCAP has made a huge change to not only be present and assess needs, but to create and facilitate action,” says Margarita Cabrera, the new director of the Climate Finance Program.

CCAP has ongoing work with funders such as the Green Climate Fund, NAMA Facility, and GIZ, working with developing nations to strengthen reporting mechanisms, access finance, and implement climate mitigation projects.

While CCAP looks forward to the results of COP26, taking place Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland, including clarity on climate financing flows and commitments, it recognizes that utilizing previously available funds has presented a challenge for developing nations. Some country representatives have noted that constrained resources present a challenge in accessing financing.

“One of the main challenges has been to deploy these climate finance pathways,” says Cabrera. “CCAP is responding to that call.”

Cabrera comes to CCAP from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) where she specialized in green finance. She also worked for the international climate change consultancy group, MGM Innova Group, where she led the Business Development Team and managed a wide range of climate and carbon projects.

CCAP helps policy makers around the world develop, promote, and implement innovative, market-based solutions to major climate, air quality and energy problems that balance both environmental and economic interests.

Core work areas include climate finance, developing country capacity building and facilitative dialogue, and the development of national climate strategies, sectoral mitigation programs and climate finance proposals.