Green Climate Fund

Green Climate Fund
AbbreviationGCF
Formation2010; 14 years ago (2010)
Legal statusActive
HeadquartersSongdo International Business District, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, South Korea
WebsiteGreenClimate.fund
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The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a fund for climate finance that was established within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Considered the world's largest fund of its kind, GCF's objective is to assist developing countries with climate change adaptation and mitigation activities.[1] The GCF is an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC. It is based in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea. It is governed by a Board of 24 members and supported by a Secretariat.

Mafalda Duarte, a Portuguese development economist, is the Fund's Executive Director.[2]

The Green Climate Fund supports projects and other activities in developing countries using thematic funding windows.[3] It is intended that the Green Climate Fund be the centrepiece of efforts to raise climate finance under the UNFCCC. There are four other, smaller multilateral climate funds for paying out money in climate finance which are coordinated by the UNFCCC. These include the Adaptation Fund (AF), the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GCF is the largest of these five funds.[4][5]

As of Dec 2023, the GCF had a portfolio of 13.5 billion USD (51.9 billion USD including co-financing).[6]

The process of designing the GCF has raised several issues. These include ongoing questions on how funds will be raised,[7] the role of the private sector,[8] the level of "country ownership" of resources,[9] and the transparency of the Board itself.[10] Also, this additional international climate institution might further fragment taxpayer's money that is put towards climate action.[11]

The Fund's former director Héla Cheikhrouhou has complained in 2016 that the Fund is backing too many "business-as-usual types of investment proposals". This view is echoed by a number of civil society organizations.[12]

In 2023, the Executive Director announced a series of reforms aimed at making the Fund more efficient and positioned to deliver greater impact.[13]

  1. ^ "U.S. Delivers for the Green Climate Fund and the World's Most Vulnerable".
  2. ^ "Executive Director, Green Climate Fund".
  3. ^ UNFCCC. "Transitional Committee for the design of the Green Climate Fund". Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  6. ^ Fund, Green Climate (3 December 2023). "COP28: Green Climate Fund reaches record funding level". Green Climate Fund. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
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  13. ^ "Executive Director unveils "50by30" blueprint for reform, targeting USD 50 billion by 2030".