Germany's environment ministry is preparing to launch a new annual "large grants" funding call through the ministry's international climate initiative IKI at the UN Cop 31 summit in Antalya, Turkey, next month.
The IKI large grants will provide funding of €7mn-15mn per project over a period of up to eight years. The call will close on 9 February and is open to organisations and/or companies forming a consortium, the ministry said.
The new call will have nine priority areas — seven thematic and two country-specific — four of which the ministry has disclosed in advance. They are mobilising the private sector for climate adaptation measures, providing legal certainty and tackling illegal deforestation by exposing environmental crime, promoting integrated measures for biodiversity and climate action through co-ordinated governance and financing, and protecting and restoring marine natural carbon sinks.
IKI's annual "medium grants" funding call, which launched in 2020, provides funding of €300,000-800,000 per project over a period of 2-3 years. This targets mainly non-governmental organisations and academic institutions. The 2025 IKI medium grants funding call saw 10 successful bidders receive a total of €7.4bn. The 2026 call was announced on 13 October and closes on 12 January.
IKI's four basic funding areas are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, climate change adaptation, preserving natural carbon sinks and protecting biodiversity.
IKI-supported projects can to an extent also make use of the UN's Paris agreement crediting mechanism (Pacm). IKI funds can be used for initial preparatory work on a Pacm project, such as drawing up documentation or feasibility studies. And IKI can provide some start-up funding for pilot projects introducing expensive technologies, on the condition that the resulting emissions savings are counted towards the host country's climate plan under the Paris climate agreement, known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC).
The same limitations apply to blended finance approaches which combine IKI funds with private funds. Emissions savings corresponding to IKI's share of the total financing must be counted towards the host country's NDC. Under revolving funds, emissions savings achieved through IKI support may be traded as internationally transferred mitigation outcomes under Article 6 of the Paris agreement, but only if the proceeds are channelled back into the fund and fully reinvested in new projects. And for IKI funds to count as international climate finance, the corresponding emissions savings must be credited to the host country's NDC.
Germany's environment ministry views Pacm as the crediting benchmark not just for the Article 6.2 framework, which allows bilateral trading of emissions reductions between countries, but also for the voluntary carbon market. IKI also supports the Supporting Preparedness for Article 6 Cooperation (SPAR6C) programme for developing countries Colombia, Pakistan, Thailand and Zambia, which runs over June 2022-August 2027.
