SALALAH: Oman is preparing an Omani bank for accreditation by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and qualifying a second national institution to work in the field, part of an effort to reach international climate finance without routing projects through foreign intermediaries.
Neither institution was named and no timetable was given, according to a presentation delivered in Salalah. The bank has been selected to pursue accreditation; it has not secured GCF approval.
Direct access remains uncommon. International entities implemented 77 per cent of GCF projects and national entities 13 per cent, according to a 2024 Transparency International Bangladesh analysis of 2023 fund data, which also found that 68.8 per cent of eligible countries had no direct-access entity. The GCF network has since grown, reaching 168 partner agencies across more than 130 countries by March 2026.
The details were set out at the 25th Annual General Conference on Government Readiness for a Sustainable Future by Eng Khalid bin Mohammed al Balushi of the Environment Authority, in a paper on innovative finance for sustainability.
He put the global financing requirement at $4.5 trillion to $6 trillion through 2030. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change costs the needs set out in the national climate plans of 98 developing countries at $5.01 trillion to $6.85 trillion cumulatively over a comparable period, or $455 billion to $584 billion a year. The two estimates use different scopes and are not directly comparable.
Adaptation is the sharper shortfall. The UN Environment Programme puts annual adaptation needs in developing countries at $310 billion to $365 billion by 2035, depending on method. International public adaptation finance totalled $26 billion in 2023, down from $28 billion a year earlier.
The paper identified exchange-rate volatility, regulatory instability, complex international procedures and thin disclosure data as barriers to access. Weak data makes environmental impact hard to measure and raises the risk of greenwashing.
Accreditation has also been slow, historically taking two to three years. The GCF now runs two cycles a year, each with a two-month application window and a nine-month review — a period that excludes the time applicants take to answer questions and so does not cap the process at nine months.
Oman’s response centres on the National Climate Platform, launched during COP30 in Belém in November 2025 and intended to work as a national coordination and investment centre. Its stated purpose is to convert strategies into financeable projects, connect them to international funds, development banks and commercial lenders; and coordinate the funding requests Oman submits abroad.
Priority areas are clean energy and green hydrogen; water, agriculture and climate resilience; waste and the circular economy; and private-sector finance. The platform rests on national ownership, partnership and transparency, with digital tools to track investment and improve disclosure.
The finance is tied directly to Oman’s targets. Its nationally determined contribution seeks a 21 per cent cut in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030 against a business-as-usual scenario: 7 per cent unconditional and 14 per cent conditional on international finance, technology transfer and cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Net zero is targeted for 2050.
Two-thirds of that 2030 target, in other words, depends on money Oman does not yet control.
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