Financing climate and environmental actions

A statement by the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) detailing the fund's strategy to integrate gender equality into climate finance to enhance resilience and low-emission development.

• Women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change, yet they are critical agents of change. In agriculture, women make up nearly 43% of the workforce but face gaps in access to land, financing, markets, and information. Closing these gaps in sub-Saharan Africa could increase agricultural outputs by 20 to 30 percent and help achieve approximately one-third of the 169 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets.
• The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the first climate finance mechanism to mainstream gender perspectives from the start of its operations. Its Governing Instrument mandates gender mainstreaming across all interventions, and its Gender Policy requires project proponents to assess gender-differentiated risks and opportunities. Every GCF-funded project must include a Gender Action Plan with performance indicators, and current investments are projected to benefit more than 180 million women.
• As part of the Action Coalition on Feminist Action for Climate Justice, the GCF has committed to providing $10 billion annually in GCF and co-financing support designed to optimize co-benefits between gender equality and climate action.
• The GCF implements specific financing models to support women's leadership in climate action across different regions: in Ghana, it works with the African Development Bank to provide loans to women-led enterprises and farmer associations; in Morocco, it uses grant finance to support women-led cooperatives managing argan tree biospheres; and in Mongolia, a low-carbon business development loans programme targets women-led enterprises for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.
• The GCF is partnering with Acumen to support off-grid renewable energy SMEs through the KawiSafi Ventures Fund. The GCF provides USD 20 million in equity and USD 5 million in grant to this USD 110 million fund, which invests USD 2-10 million in 10 to 15 clean energy SMEs in Kenya and Rwanda. Acumen estimates that women represent 40% of the fund's beneficiaries/customers and 40% of solar systems selling agents.

APA

Green Climate Fund (2021). Financing climate and environmental actions. https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/news-and-updates/financing-climate-and-environmental-actions

Chicago

Green Climate Fund. Financing climate and environmental actions. 2021. https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/news-and-updates/financing-climate-and-environmental-actions.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Green Climate Fund |title=Financing climate and environmental actions |date=17 May 2021 |url=https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/news-and-updates/financing-climate-and-environmental-actions |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{greenclimatefund2021financing, author = {{Green Climate Fund}}, title = {{Financing climate and environmental actions}}, publisher = {Green Climate Fund}, year = {2021}, month = may, url = {https://www.greenclimate.fund/about/news-and-updates/financing-climate-and-environmental-actions}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }