The EU GCCA+ initiative contributes towards achieving the overall target of at least 20 % of the EU budget spent on climate action by 2020, as much as EUR 180 billion.

EU GCCA+ commitments total EUR 750 million over the period 2007-2020, making it one of the largest climate initiatives in the world. Its budget has increased from EUR 317.5 million in the first phase (2007-2014) to EUR 420 million in the second phase (2014-2020).

The EU GCCA+ initiative aims at funding actions that:

• Strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of human and natural systems to climate-related natural hazards and disasters (e.g. climate-smart and sustainable agriculture, integrated coastal-zone management, improving the sustainability of ecosystem services via Eco-system based adaptation and eco-DRR approaches, etc.);

• Improve community and institutional capacity for enhanced climate resilience (e.g. by integrating participatory disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation and climate mitigation co-benefits, development of national climate change policies and roadmaps, etc.);

• Promote effective climate change planning and management capacities, paying particular attention to gender issues, youth and local and marginalised and vulnerable communities (e.g. mainstreaming climate change issues into national and local governments’ planning and budgeting systems; increasing the amount of finance available to local authorities and actors (governmental and non-governmental) for implementing climate strategies).