Toolkit to Enhance Access to Climate Finance: A Commonwealth Practical Guide

This Toolkit has been developed by the Climate Change Section of the Commonwealth Secretariat following a series of consultations and document reviews with Commonwealth National and Regional Climate Finance Advisers and based on their in-country experiences as part of the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub (CCFAH) operations from 2015/16 till now. This toolkit is a practical guide based on hands-on experiences which will enable governments and other climate finance access entities to ramp up the access modalities.The Toolkit offers an overview of the key dedicated international climate funding opportunities, as well as the associated procedures, policies and requirements of the various climate funds. It provides experiences, best practices and lessons learnt through the work of the CCFAH in the following six areas: 1) Climate change project development, particularly the various steps required for accessing the main climate funding sources, 2) Achieving climate finance readiness and understanding the associated support mechanisms, 3) Accreditation support for successfully undertaking this process, 4) Human and institutional capacity development initiatives to support mobilisation of climate finance, 5) Climate policy support for effective implementation of national climate financing frameworks, and 6) Knowledge management and sharing across countries and regions for enhanced access to climate finance.