The Adaptation Fund was officially launched in 2007,[1] although it was established in 2001 at the 7th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the UNFCCC in Marrakech, Morocco[2] to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes that reduce the adverse effects of climate change facing communities, countries, and sectors.
It is intended to finance climate adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are parties to the Kyoto Protocol.
"At the Conference of the Parties (COP15) in 2009, developed countries pledged to provide new and additional resources, called the First Start Finance, approaching US$30 billion between 2010 and 2012 and with balanced allocation between mitigation and adaptation.
It set a goal of raising US$100 billion a year by 2020 to deliver equal amounts of funding to mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.
One unique feature of the Adaptation Fund is its direct access mechanism,[14] which enables accredited national implementing entities (NIEs) and regional implementing agencies (RIEs) in developing countries to directly access climate adaptation financing.
"Dependence on monsoon rains makes farming operations in India vulnerable to climate change, particularly since nearly half of the country's cereals and 80% of its legumes and minor millets are grown in regions where irrigation is unavailable, 'Annual and perennial crops are being adversely affected due to increasing monsoon variability and increasingly frequent extreme weather events like hail storms'"[15] The crops that India grows are vital around the world and in their cultures.
To help mitigate the effects of climate change, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has demonstrated new technologies, such as flood-tolerant rice varieties, and social interventions, like community-run seed banks and village level climate-risk management committees.