Several years ago, it seemed like a distant dream and an unbelievable story, but now it’s a reality. Climate change and global warming are accelerating so rapidly that simply talking about and making plans for the future is not enough. Action is needed.

To discuss climate-related concerns, Georgia hosted the 37th meeting of the Green Climate Fund Board held in the Eastern European region for the first time.

The meeting covered a deadly landslide in Racha killing 32 people with foreign experts from various nations talking about the additional measures that could prevent such tragedies.

A number of concrete initiatives were announced at the very meeting aimed at preventing possible risks resulting from climate change in Georgia. These entail the prediction of natural events and the installation of appropriate monitoring stations in a bid to minimize damage. In addition, foreign specialists will participate in modernizing the system of advance warnings.

Georgian Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture Otar Shamugia, and the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, Mafalda Duarte, made opening remarks at the event, discussing climate-related concerns.

A member of the Governing Board of the Green Climate Fund and the First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Nino Tandilashvili, representing the countries of the Eastern European region, headed the session opening.

“The negative impact of climate change has manifested itself in intensified natural events all across the planet. GCF has funded two national projects in Georgia for implementing mitigation and adaptation measures.

Furthermore, we are also involved in GCF regional projects. We hope that fruitful cooperation with the Green Climate Fund will continue in the future.

I believe that the decisions made in Tbilisi regarding the financing of important projects will be another step forward for developing countries in dealing with the global problem of climate change,” says Otar Shamugia.

In her remark, Duarte said, “The mentioned meeting is crucial since the Board of Directors has to make decisions that will be implemented in the next four years.”

“Our partnership with Georgia started in 2016, and since then we have been implementing several joint projects in different directions. Within the mentioned projects, we are planning to visit different locations this week”, says Duarte.

The high-ranking representatives of relevant Ministries from different countries (USA, Pakistan, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Argentina, China, Great Britain, Spain, Japan, and Egypt) attended the 37th meeting.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the world’s largest fund that helps developing countries meet their climate change goals.