Despite its limited contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, the African continent is highly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. Progress is being made globally towards mobilising and scaling-up climate finance – notably with the recent establishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the adoption of the Paris Agreement during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference to the Parties (COP21) in December 2015. However, the amount of climate finance flowing to the African continent remains below the estimated needs and the continent continues to receive a relatively small share of global climate finance disbursement compared to other regions.

The Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) was established in April 2014 as a bilateral trust fund with a € 4.7 million (US $6 million) contribution from the government of Germany for an initial three-year period. At the end of 2015, the ACCF was able to secure an additional funding commitment of € 4.7 million from the government of Italy which will bring the total contributions to the ACCF to over € 9.4 million.

The aim of ACCF is to support regional member countries (RMCs) in their transition to climate resilient and low carbon development. The Fund aims to help RMCs: (i) prepare to access greater amounts of climate finance; (ii) address climate change in their growth strategies and policies and also in developing climate-resilient and low-carbon investment plans and projects; (iii) co-finance climate-resilient and low-carbon projects and programs; (iv) receive consolidated information on climate-resilient and lowcarbon development; (v) build the capacity of national and regional stakeholders for climate change and green growth; and (vi) prepare for and contribute to the Conferences of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).