The Green Climate Fund at COP17
Introduction
Action to reduce emissions and promote resilience must be taken now. Climate science tells us we have a
limited window in which to reduce emissions and promote resilience. This is essential to safeguard
sustainable development and the MDGs within developing countries. Immediate, scaled-up action now is
also important for donor countries; an abundance of climate science research and economic analysis
present a clear message that early action is both cheaper and more effective in reducing emissions and
building resilience.
At its fourth meeting in Cape Town, the Transitional Committee (TC) for the design of the Green Climate
Fund (GCF) forwarded a governing instrument for the GCF to COP17 for consideration and adoption.
The text was forwarded without brackets and can be adopted as it stands. Indeed, leaders at the G20
meeting in Cannes, 3-4 November 2011, “call[ed] for the implementation of the Cancun agreements and
further progress in all areas of negotiation, including the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund, as
part of a balanced outcome in Durban”. Unlike existing channels of climate finance, the GCF offers an
opportunity to scale up international assistance to the volumes required and so take advantage of the
financial and developmental benefits of early action without putting mandatory obligations on countries.
This note presents four key arguments for why COP17 should now adopt this document as it stands and
so take the vital political steps needed to operationalise the GCF.
1. The TC document represents opportunity rather than obligation
The governing instrument produced by the TC is a delicate balance between what politically is achievable
and what is substantively needed on the ground to drive a paradigm shift in addressing climate change in
developing countries. Politically, the document provides donor countries with a high degree of flexibility,
while as the same time driving scaled up implementation mechanisms for developing countries, including
on direct access. In terms of the substance of the GCF, this flexibility means that all governments are
presented with an opportunity and none with an obligation.
In terms of generating a tangible paradigm shift in the delivery of climate finance, the 8 page document is
the foundation for a Fund that is greater than the sum of individual countries’ negotiating positions. It
represents both the crucial political balance and also a Fund that is substantively and technically different
from business-as-usual with new, innovative components in the form of objectives, governance
arrangements, and operational modalities. While individual governments may benefit from changes to
the text, others may not, and the balance and flexibility of the GCF constructed by the TC may be lost. It
therefore is in the collective interest of all governments to adopt this document in its current form.
2. The current political momentum must be seized
From Copenhagen in 2009, to Cancun in 2010, to the work of the TC in 2011, momentum and consensus
around the GCF have steadily grown. Today we are at a point where governments have begun to consider
detailed arrangements for setting up the structure of the GCF, including initial pledges, hosting
arrangements, and legal issues.
Delaying progress in Durban risks draining this political momentum and thus jeopardising the new and
additional resources that will be raised by the GCF. The document as it currently stands does not demand
action by governments that are currently not in a position to act; instead it opens the opportunity for
scaled up implementation among those countries that are ready and willing. Moreover, accelerating
progress on the GCF offers an opportunity to build further momentum for the wider Durban package
within the climate change negotiations, especially on mitigation issues. A strong signal of commitment
from developed countries on the GCF could yield significant commitments from developing countries in
other areas.
3. Scaled-up finance is needed now
Providing predicable, adequate, and additional climate finance is essential for developing countries to
address climate change. It is also essential to create the enabling and regulatory environment for private
sector actors, from multinational technology firms to local farmers and enterprises in developing
countries. The GCF is needed immediately to provide this certainty and allow long-term planning,
preparations, and investments by governments and the private sector now.
4. The content of the TC document is fit for the challenge
The outcome from the TC offers a mechanism capable of addressing the urgency of tackling climate
change and one that can provide rapidly scaled-up volumes of finance. The governing instrument offers a
mechanism capable of catalysing, leveraging, and mobilising a significant volume of finance, and so able
to make a major contribution to reaching volumes of $100bn per year by 2020. The document creates a
Fund that will give increased focus to adaptation, promote the engagement of the private sector in
developing countries at new scales, provide opportunities for enhanced direct access, and that can catalyse
major public and private investments. This is essential to provide predictable, adequate, and additional
finance that the existing international climate architecture does not provide and so avoid a gap opening up
between 2013 and 2020.
Summary
If the current document is adopted at COP17, governments will advance a balanced, innovative,
compromise that creates the best possible conditions for scaled up political and financial commitment
among governments, and—critically—for action on the ground to address climate change in developing
countries. It also opens the opportunity to develop a flexible instrument over time that will bring about
the paradigm shift envisaged in the Cancun Agreements. It is an opportunity for all countries to advance
their collective goal to combat global climate change.
Adoption of the TC’s document at COP17 is therefore a pivotal moment for all those concerned with
addressing climate change in developing countries.