International climate finance will be insufficient

Abstract

Subject Green Climate Fund. Significance The Green Climate Fund (GCF) held its first replenishment conference in late October, seeing 9.78 billion dollars pledged for the next four years of operations. That amount exceeds the initial capital pledged in 2014, relieving fears that the impending US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2020 might drag down confidence in the Fund. This public source of climate finance is politically important in catalysing action in developing countries. However, overall global climate finance is still falling far short of the amounts required to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Impacts ‘Gold standard’ requirements for GCF project approval will push institutions to raise standards in areas such as 'gender mainstreaming'. Civil society groups are beginning to assess more systematically the effectiveness of different climate finance approaches. Deeper private sector engagement will be a major GCF future focus area, with co-financing leveraging additional investment.