Climate and Energy Response Facility - CERF

CERF 2022-2025

Read the brochure below for a programme overview, its highlights and results achieved over the years.

What is CERF?

CERF is a flexible facility with a focus on climate change mitigation. Climate change mitigation is the effort to reduce or prevent the emission of greenhouse gases. Its effect will limit the amount of future warming.

CERF facilitates the follow-up of policy dialogues on climate mitigation ambitions and actions between Dutch diplomatic missions and partner countries. The facility focuses on solving challenges and co-creating practical solutions that suit the local context. CERF also aims to mobilise experts from different professional disciplines, financiers and local stakeholders to speed up transition pathways. CERF finances activities aimed at:

• knowledge sharing;
• policy advice; and
• capacity strengthening;

while connecting supporting instruments and establishing partnerships. This includes financial partnerships.

Dutch diplomatic missions in selected partner countries will design a tailored, multi-annual CERF collaboration approach for specific sectors. In other selected countries, CERF will support quick, short-term collaboration. The approach and interventions must be in line with the missions' multi-annual country strategies. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency will support these Dutch diplomatic missions.

For whom?

CERF is a government-to-government facility for Dutch diplomatic missions. It supports climate diplomacy dialogue between the Netherlands and selected partner countries. CERF also offers follow-up via other instruments to reach its long-term ambitions.

Responsible Business Conduct (RBC)

Your project must follow the international Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) guidelines. We take RBC into account when assessing your funding application. We ask you to:

• follow OECD guidelines;
• show how you conduct your operations following these OECD guidelines;
• carry out a proper risk analysis of social and environmental risks;
• state the measures to prevent and reduce these risks.

During the project, you must report on RBC risks and state the measures you are taking or plan to take to prevent and reduce these risks.

Dutch companies must complete an RBC self-assessment as part of the application process. The Dutch government uses this scan to check whether a company is aware of and follows the OECD guidelines. This assessment is a requirement for approval of your project.

On our website, you can read more about RBC and due diligence.

CERF themes

CERF focuses on sharing expertise on climate change mitigation in a number of high-impact sectors. Important CERF themes are, among others, offshore wind, hydrogen, solar energy and circular economy.

CERF partner countries

See the table below for the partner countries CERF supports via long-term collaboration and multi-annual support, and short-term collaboration. 

More information

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency manages CERF on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On the Development Cooperation Project database, you can find an overview of the projects CERF carries out. You can filter by location, sector and status, among others.