Future Fund Impact Report 2021

The idea for the Future Fund was conceived at the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) in Marrakech in 2017. Since then, it has grown to play a key role in empowering developing and emerging economy regions to raise the bar and accelerate the transition towards a resilient and net zero future.

Now in its fifth year, the Future Fund remains a critical and transformative project. It has supported beneficiary governments in emerging regions through projects and secondments — designed to facilitate capacity building and peer-to-peer learning. Over the years, the number of projects it has been able to fund has tripled. This demonstrates the importance of having funding in place to empower these regions to join in the global response to climate change.

The COVID-19 pandemic further emphasised the importance of supporting developing countries to achieve their climate targets, despite the inevitable shortage of financial, technical and capacity resources. The Future Fund was able to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 to help more governments build back greener, and keep a just and equitable transition at the centre of their economic and climate strategies.

When the world came to a stop, the Future Fund continued to facilitate international secondments by adapting them to an online platform. This helped to build knowledge and capacity through peer-learning on topics ranging from renewable energy and biodiversity monitoring to climate-resilient infrastructure planning.

Key takeaways

• Continued delivery of secondment projects despite pandemic disruption.
• Expanded reach into new beneficiary regions across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
• Increased emphasis on peer-to-peer learning between Under2 Coalition members.