Nature People & Climate Program

WHAT IT AIMS TO ACHIEVE

The Nature, People and Climate (NPC) Investment Program aims to tackle the multiple drivers and impacts of climate change, resulting from human activities on land resources and ecosystems services, in an integrated manner.

The NPC program will deploy nature-based solutions that recognize the interdependence among land use, climate-change mitigation and adaptation, and the improvement of the sources of livelihoods of rural communities and Indigenous peoples. By managing these complex and conjoined relationships and understanding the trade-offs, lasting change can be achieved. By working to adapt to climate change and mitigate its impacts across a diversity of land uses, we can sustainably support many different livelihoods and a just transition that serves to reduce poverty and distribute prosperity equitably.

Why it’s needed

Climate change presents a profound threat to our global ecosystems. As such, the need to address competing land uses to tackle climate risks has become urgent and the shift towards sustainable management of our natural resources must be accelerated.

An estimated 23 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, forestry, and other land use. Changes in land use and land cover, caused by these areas of human industry, have contributed to climate change. They have also negatively impacted the provision of ecosystem services — exacerbating the degradation of land and water ecosystems. Human actions — the unsustainable ways in which we have managed our natural resources — have significantly expanded the threat to our forests, rivers, farmlands, coastal systems, and marine environments.

At the same time, we must also ensure a transition is just, that is, benefits the most vulnerable, and intensify efforts to maintain the impetus in this respect.

How it works

The NPC program, benefiting from the breadth of previous experience gained through CIF’s Forest Investment Program and the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience, is built on the solid foundations of the lessons learned and innovations from these programs.

The program is designed to adopt a holistic and consultative multisectoral, systems-level approach, enabling all affected stakeholders to participate. It features three phases that can be delivered sequentially, simultaneously, or by itself:

A rapid landscape diagnostic phase works with all stakeholders to identify and assess risks, requirements, and priorities.
A strategy and project pipeline development phase arises from the diagnostic. It involves defining the strategy and the types of projects required to meet local climate objectives.
The implementational rollout phase focuses on financing and delivering the strategy, as well as identified nature-based solutions and related projects.

The program maximizes the in-country impact of CIF’s multilateral development bank (MDB) partners by joining initiatives under a programmatic approach that addresses the following aims:

Bridges the gap between policy and investment;
Enhances the ability to innovate how concessional finance is delivered; and
Benefits the specific needs of people and ecosystems in developing countries.

Examples of projects that may be delivered are presented below:

Assistance to local government in preparing bankable projects to help attract private-sector investment;
Local policy development and legislative advice to create enabling circumstances for identified projects;
Incorporation of climate-smart interventions into agriculture or forestry;
Creation, cultivation, and stimulation of enterprises or markets for nature-based products and services.

Empowering Local People

Indigenous peoples and local communities are often critical to the success of nature-based solutions to climate change. Because of their lived experience at the sharp edge of climate change, Indigenous peoples and local communities are potential agents of viable climate solutions who possess significant knowledge that can be harnessed. However, their important role is often overlooked and undervalued.

The NPC program aims to reverse that situation by promoting the participation of Indigenous peoples and communities, through a unique direct financing initiative called the Dedicated Grant Mechanism (DGM) to:

Empower and finance local, sustainable, and socially inclusive enterprises of Indigenous peoples and communities that are driving climate-change solutions; and
Engage the knowledge, experience, and capacities of those at the forefront of climate change in climate action.

Most significantly, the DGM seeks to deliver a just transition successfully by working to reduce the impacts of climate change on those who are already poor, marginalized, or otherwise vulnerable.