Published: September 12, 2026
BUCHANAN — Liberia is seeking the right to draw money directly from the Green Climate Fund, a change that would put the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in charge of financing climate projects and could bring the country about US$1 million to build the systems to manage them.
By Henry N. Kolenky
The government began preparations for accreditation in Buchanan, with the finance ministry leading the process. Elijah Whapoe, national coordinator for the Green Climate Fund at the Environmental Protection Agency, said African countries receive less than 4% of the fund’s financing, and that Liberia should take stronger steps to benefit directly from money available to developing countries for climate action.
Acting Assistant Minister of Economic Policy Josephus T. C. Nyumalin said Liberia’s need for climate finance far exceeds what the national budget can provide. Rising temperatures, changing rainfall, flooding and coastal erosion are already cutting into livelihoods, food security and the economy, he said, and climate change should be built into national economic planning rather than handled as a separate environmental problem.
Nyumalin said accreditation would strengthen Liberia’s capacity to develop, manage and monitor climate projects and tighten the country’s financial controls and accountability mechanisms.
Whapoe said the roughly US$1 million in capacity-building support would come only if Liberia succeeds and would go toward setting up systems at the finance ministry to manage climate programs. He said the ministry’s decision to lead the process showed greater national ownership of Liberia’s climate agenda.
Liberia will compete with other institutions seeking direct access to the fund, Whapoe said, and he urged the ministry to complete the accreditation process.
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