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Business Reporter
THE multi-billion-dollar Green Climate Fund (GCF) has accredited the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) as it seeks to ramp up financing of climate friendly projects in developing countries.

This brings to 113 financial institutions accredited by the Fund as of July 1 this year.

The GCF is a global fund created to support the efforts by developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change.

GCF helps developing countries limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.

It also seeks to promote a paradigm shift to low-emission and climate-resilient development, taking into account the needs of nations that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Accredited entities can be private or public, non-governmental, sub-national, national, regional or international, as long as they meet the standards of the Fund.

Accredited entities carry out a range of activities that include the development of funding proposals and the management and monitoring of projects and programmes. Many countries may access GCF resources through multiple entities simultaneously.

Apart from IDBZ, other newly accredited entities include the Development Bank of Philippines, Korea International Cooperation Agency, TBC Bank of Georgia and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.

The fund has so far committed US$8,3 billion to 173 projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and is set to help nearly 500 million people become more resilient to more extreme weather and rising seas, while cutting carbon emissions.

Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Paris Climate Change Accord agreed in 2015, which seeks to hold the increase of the global average temperature to below two degrees Celsius.

Zimbabwe submitted a conditional 33 percent energy sector per capita greenhouse gas emission reduction target.

The submission was conditional on the means of implementation namely technology development and transfer, relevant training and financial support.