GCAP is leading a DFID-funded project to develop climate services to increase the resilience of Kenya’s potato sector – working with our partners Climate Yetu, the Kenyan Meteorological Department, and the UK Met Office.

Kenya’s potato sector growing rapidly, and is the 2^ndmost important food crop in the country, behind Maize. It is highlighted as part of the Kenyan Government’s ‘Big Four’ agenda. Currently, however, climate change is only weakly integrated into the sector, and there exists a huge opportunity to make improved use of climate information in business decisions to both increase production and reduce losses. When farmers suffer losses, primarily as a result of floods or drought, the impacts cascade along the value chain. Farmers suffer a direct loss of income, potato aggregators have to increase prices, and processors reduce production, and may ultimately be forced to lay off staff if they are unable to source enough potatoes at a reasonable price. 

GCAP is helping the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to develop an Adaptation Framework. IFAD has been active on climate change adaptation, most notably through the ASAP I programme, and is established as a major actor in agricultural adaptation.

GCAP worked with WS Atkins and Vivid Economics to carry out a Gap and Market Assessment for Climate Action for the European Investment Bank (EIB). Climate is one of EIB’s four priority areas, and with €90 billion invested globally in Climate Action over 2012-2016, the EIB has a leading role in climate finance among Multilateral Development Banks. EIB Group’s investment in Climate Action Mitigation and Adaptation reached over 29% of its total annual lending in 2018. To sustain this growth in volume and impact of its lending, the EIB commissioned a market and gap analysis in support of its Climate Strategy. The primary aim of this analysis is to identify opportunities across EIB geographies that will:

GCAP and WS Atkins worked together to develop the EIB’s Climate Risk Assessment system. The objective of the project was to ensure that EIB projects are suitably resilient to climate change, by developing a system and set of tools which are integrated into the Bank’s project assessment procedures and allow the systematic screening of projects for climate risks. The project builds on an initial phase of work assessing and scoping the opportunities for the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation within the Bank. Extensive engagement across the bank led to the development of a set of functional requirements for the system, which were further developed into a business case for EIB’s IT department to implement.

Companies and investors are beginning to see climate change adaptation as an opportunity rather than simply a cost as climate impacts are generating a need for new products and services that present solutions for resilience.

Private Markets for Climate Resilience is an assessment of risks and opportunities for companies and investors. This project is the first major investment by Climate Finance Institutions—the Multilateral Investment Fund and Nordic Development Fund--to systematically evaluate the potential market for climate resilience solutions in the private sector. Focusing on transport and agriculture, this initiative seeks to examine current best practices and investigate the opportunities in this emerging sector by identifying the leaders that will shape the emerging market, highlighting products, services, tools and innovative processes, creating an information platform with emerging opportunities for investment, and identifying companies that are candidates for investment.