Washington, D.C. (March 23, 2016) — The Adaptation Fund has received the highest ‘Green’ rating for presenting and sharing all of its materials electronically at the COP21/CMP 11 climate change conference held Nov. 30 – Dec. 12 at the Le Bourget meeting site in Paris, France.
The Fund’s Side Event during the conference was one of only 78, or 39%, of 202 possible events at COP21 to make the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat’s “Green list of official side events” released last week. The Fund also received an additional ‘Special Badge’ for uploading and disseminating its COP21 Side Event and Exhibit materials and results through the UNFCCC website.
“Receiving both the highest Green rating and Special Badge for our COP21 activities is great news, and further illustrates the commitment we have to addressing climate change — both through funding concrete localized adaptation projects in vulnerable countries and setting an example through our own individual actions,” said Marcia Levaggi, manager of the Adaptation Fund.
With a view to promoting the greening of the conference, the organizers of all official COP21 side events were encouraged by the UNFCCC secretariat to go paperless and disseminate their materials through electronic means only. In order to track the sustainability level of each side event, a rating system was introduced with ‘Green’ (electronic dissemination of materials only), ‘Orange’ (limited number of print materials combined with electronic dissemination) or ‘Red’ (many leftover printed materials) as possible ratings.
The Adaptation Fund and its Green rating and Special Badge can be found on the Green List under ‘United Nations and Related Organizations’ within the UNFCCC website.
The Adaptation Fund was an active participant during COP 21, hosting a Side Event on its innovative Direct Access program, a multimedia video and photo Exhibit on projects in action all over the world and a Contributor Dialogue, in addition to speaking at a High Level Segment and participating in other related activities such as UNFCCC’s Climate Change Studio video.
“Our Side Event and Exhibit reflected creativity in leveraging multimedia to tell the story of our projects in an interactive way,” said Adaptation Fund Board Chairman Naresh Sharma. “Going fully electronic also helps on the mitigation side by reducing our carbon footprint. We look forward to continuing such conservation partnering efforts at future COP sessions.”
An historic Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance adaptation measures was adopted in Paris by 196 countries on Dec. 12 at the Conference of the Parties 21st Session to the UN Convention on Climate Change (COP21). The Adaptation Fund was specifically referenced in the decision adopting the Agreement. During COP21, the Fund also received new pledges totaling about US$75 million. For more information on Adaptation Fund results and activities at COP21, please visit https://www.adaptation-fund.org/cop21/.
ABOUT the ADAPTATION FUND
Since 2010, the Adaptation Fund has committed US$338 million to support 52 concrete climate adaptation and resilience projects in 46 countries, with 3.57 million direct beneficiaries.
Communications: Matthew Pueschel, mpueschel@adaptation-fund.org or +1 202 473 6743
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| Press Release March 23, 2016 | 281 KB |