Climate change is speeding up desertification and the degradation of soils. It is time to put in place sustainable solutions to ensure everybody has sufficient access to water and satisfactory agricultural resources.

 

€40M
committed by AFD: €30M in the senior tranche, €7M in the junior tranche and €3M to finance the TA facility
$50M+
committed by EIB: $45M in the senior tranche and €5 M in the junior tranche with the Government of Luxembourg
130+
projects analyzed and on-going negotiations for more than 10 projects

Announcements

  • Launch of the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund (LDN), a global impact investment vehicle developed by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Mirova (Natixis) to support sustainable land use practices globally and restore degraded land.
  • Anchor investors: European Investment Bank and French Development Agency (AFD)
  • $100M committed out of a target of $300M.

Accomplishments

  • Increased support from public stakeholders promoting blended finance
  • Mobilization of private finance and institutional investors in favor of land rehabilitation and resilience
  • Establishment of a pipeline of projects, with an in-depth review of promising investment opportunities (agroforestry in Peru, tree nut out-grower scheme in South Asia, reforestation and natural rubber in Indonesia, sustainable teak plantation in Ghana, etc.)

Next steps

  • Final negotiations on documentation
  • Technical Assistance facility to be operational in Q4 2018
  • First investments to be disbursed in 2019
" Rehabilitating degraded land, protecting vital ecosystems and empowering sustainable business around the world
is what the LDN Fund is all about, and we believe this can be achieved along with competitive market-level returns "
Philippe Zaouati, CEO of Mirova
2000
community members currently employed over approx. 19,000ha in Indonesia
163000
farmers in 972 villages practicing ZBNF in India
$95M
Inaugural transaction in February 2018 through the TLFF

Announcements

  • UNEP and BNP Paribas signed an agreement to establish Sustainable Finance Facilities on agriculture and forestry.
  • Target of capital funding amounting to US$10bn by 2025 in developing countries.
  • Support smallholder projects related to renewable energy access, agroforestry, water access and responsible agriculture among other sustainable activities.

Accomplishments

  • Launch of the Tropical Landscape Finance Facility (TLFF) with inaugural transaction in February 2018 to finance a sustainable natural rubber plantation on heavily degraded land in two provinces in Indonesia
  • A second initiative was launched in June 2018 as part of the Sustainable India Finance Facility (SIFF), and aims to develop Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in India. The objective is to reach 6 million farmers practicing agroecology by 2024.

Next steps

  • In Indonesia:
    • create 16,000 new jobs
    • support to 24,000 local farmers
    • achieve 49,000ha dedicated to conservation and 41,000ha for commercial and smallholder rubber plantation
  • In India: 500,000 farmers practicing ZBNF by 2019 with a global objective of 6M farmers by 2024
“The partnership with BNP Paribas sends a signal to the finance industry that ‘business as usual’ is not an option
anymore. We need to design sustainable agriculture and forestry in a way that solves the climate crisis, rather than
contributes to it.”
Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the UNEP
€500M+
of cooperation programmes in 20 countries fostering transformation through innovation in 2019

Announcements

  • The European Commission, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, France and other countries will initiate programmes up to $650 M over 2018-2020 to help the world’s poorest farmers better adapt to climate change by:
    • fostering use of scientific knowledge for innovation and development;
    • enhancing agricultural research capacities and institutional architecture;
    • increasing knowledge and evidence for policies and investment decisions.

Accomplishments

  • Elaboration of a first action portfolio, with a first co-investment of €95 M (EC) and €6 M (EU Member States)
  • Critical issues addressed in Sahel include agro-ecology, genetic improvement, bioenergy.
  • BMGF/EC joint efforts (approx 50M€) in transforming pest surveillance in West Africa, modernising seed systems in semi-arid zones of Sub-sahran Africa, building the next generation of scientific leaders in Africa
  • Farmer empowerment in research processes and agricultural research and innovation systems better equipped to embed climate change.

Les prochaines étapes

  • Open the platform to new partners.
  • Increase EC/MS co-investments in joint initiatives, and aim to develop a €100M BMGF/EC joint portfolio
  • Redouble efforts to modernize and improve the linkages between research, breeding institutions and seed systems to ensure the best varieties are reaching smallholder farmers
  • Enhance long term partnering of European science with national research capacities and development organizations
“In some areas, a Mission should trigger action to speed up progress in the development of technologies to increase
their societal impact. In other areas, the Mission should drive a systemic change.”

Mariana Mazzucato (report on Missions for DG R&I)
30
countries concerned in Africa
€1.5M
committed for incubation
20
adaptation projects identified, ready to be incubated in Africa region

Announcements

  • Declaration in support to the Global Alliances for Water and Climate incubation platform to catalyze 100 water and climate projects in Africa over the next 4 years.
  • Announcement of financial support of €5M by Italy.
  • Goals of the incubation platform:
    • Scaling up and speeding up incubation
    • Mobilizing 400+ partners engaged in 4 Alliances representing basin organizations, megacities, businesses and clean desalination solutions
    • Strengthen water governance, climate change adaptation strategies at River basin scale

Accomplishments

  • Participation in the World Water Week in Stockholm in August 2018
  • Declaration of the French Water agencies (20 projects) and incubation of 5 projects in 2018-2019
  • Incubation of 7 Transboundary Basin Organizations support program with AFD (for GCF)
  • Incubation of Niger Basin Authority by the World Bank, with the platform help
  • Incubation with AFD of the CongoOubangui-Sangha (CICOS) Water Information System

Next Steps

  • Declaration of intent of French Water agencies
  • Commitments of the targeted donors/backers
  • Mid-year annual report of the progress of incubation of 20 water & climate projects for the year 2018
  • 9th World Water Forum in Dakar in 2021
“Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change and it impacts, which pose a serious threat to its
water security. It is urgent to strengthen the resilience of the region.”
Eric Tardieu, DG International Office of Water