On 15th of December, 2018, the government communicators of line ministers (member of Government Communicators`Council) , managing the areas affected by climate change, met at a workshop organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and the Environment with the support of the Climate Change Office under the "Support to Republic of Moldova in establishing and strengthening the NDA, development of strategic framework, and preparation of country programme for engagement with Green Climate Fund (GCF)". The main objective of the workshop was to strengthen the interinstitutional communication platform in promoting the Country Program on the engagement with the Green Climate Fund and to know and consult the priority actions in the process of mitigation and adaptation of the country to climate change.

Climate Change Office Manager, Vasile Scorpan, spoke about opportunities to finance GCF climate change mitigation and adaptation projects, highlighting the importance of interinstitutional cooperation in accessing the Fund's financial sources, and the need to comply with the conditions required by GCF.

"Anyone who wants to benefit from GCF funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation projects must meet certain conditions established by the Fund. In our country, the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment is the National Designated Authority to GCF. The NDA is responsible for setting up a legal and institutional frameworkat the national level, that will ensure the attraction of GCF's financial support by public, private and non-governmental authorities. GCF is available to offer projects of various sizes starting with several hundreds of thousands of USD and up to hundreds of millions of dollars. To get the financial support from this Fund, the country needs to demonstrate that it has the capacities to develop, promote and implement such projects, and also to commit with additional co-financing", said Vasile Scorpan, the Climate Change Office manager.

The negative impacts of climate change on people's health and economic growth, their impact on agriculture, water, and forestry, energy, transport and industry, as well as the opportunities that climate change offers were discussed during the workshop. The content of the Country Program draft and the proposed investment priorities for the adaptation and mitigation components were analysed, available financing resources mentioned and the country's agenda in the engagement with Green Climate Fund discussed. The conditions for accessing GCF projects, as well as the role and responsibilities of the NDA in this process, as specified in the Operational Manual of the AND, were brought to the attention of the participants.

In the same context, the team leader of the project "Support to Republic of Moldova in establishing and strengthening the NDA, development of strategic framework, and preparation of countryprogramme for engagement with Green Climate Fund (GCF)", Ala Druţă stated that "the total amount of which the Republic of Moldova can benefit from GCF is not limited, but the country must have the necessary capacity to attract such projects. Investments may be under the form of grants and loans, shares or guarantees. The potential beneficiaries must demonstrate the feasibility of the project, its climate additionality and demonstrate commitment for co-financing. In other words, the project must contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapt the economic sectors, communities and the whole country to climate change".

At the end of the workshop, communicators expressed their appreciation of the useful information presented and the importance of the issues addressed in the context of the impact of climate change and the need to identify investments to mitigate and adapt to them. Communicators have also highlighted the importance of organizing such activities to strengthen interinstitutional cooperation capacities, expressing their conviction that they represent an effective platform for dialogue and exchange of views.

Mass Media Communication and Information service