The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC’s) Green Climate Fund would likely present African countries with opportunities for funding, and the challenge for Africa was how to put forward bankable prospects to tap into the fund as it emerged, National Planning Commission Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday.

Manuel has been appointed co-chair of the 40-member transitional committee, which was established to get the Green Fund up and running by the 17th conference of the parties (COP) in Durban in December.

The fund was a mechanism agreed to at the UNFCCC’s Cancun conference in 2010, which would seek to mobilise funds from industrialised countries to be dispersed among poorer developing nations for climate mitigation and adaptation projects.

The fund was expected to generate $100-billion a year for climate financing by 2020, as well as “fast-start finance” of $30-billion for use between 2010 and 2012. What would happen from 2013 to 2020 still needed to be clarified.

Addressing delegates gathered at a regional food and water security workshop at the Development Bank of Southern Africa in Midrand, Manuel said African decision makers should start identifying opportunities that existed on the continent, while the technicalities of the Green Climate Fund were being worked out.

He added that a range of possibilities in climate change adaptation existed, and that “climate proofing” economies was fundamentally important. Manuel said that adaptation funding ought to be able to deal with some of the infrastructure issues in Africa.

African decision makers would need to put forward the details of projects that could apply for funding from the Green Climate Fund.

“Sometimes we Africans don’t push hard enough,” said Manuel, referring to times when funds had been created but money was not delivered because no plans were put forth. He cited the example of a decision by the Group of Eight countries to double official development assistance, but said that this promise was not delivered as “Africans didn’t go and fetch the money”.

Manuel also said that cross-border projects, which stimulated regional development, would also likely be favoured by the Green Climate Fund.

“We [African countries] must do these things together,” he said, adding that he did not want to undermine the challenges of working across boundaries, but emphasised that the benefits of regional integration were widely known.

“Better connections between us can be highly productive and profitable for all of us,” he reiterated.