Negotiating Around Tradeoffs: Alternative Institutional Designs for Climate Finance

Abstract

The primary question addressed in this paper is: How would different governance priorities affect the institutional arrangements for a credible financing mechanism in the climate regime? The paper argues that tradeoffs are inevitable in climate finance negotiations, so it is important to recognise them upfront and organise negotiations around the priorities that different sets of countries identify. Such a process would generate alternative institutional designs, each offering a different balance of voice in governance, scale of funding, and timely action. Arunabha Ghosh is CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), India. He is also an Associate at the Global Economic Governance Programme, Oxford; Faculty Associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford; and Associate Fellow at the Governance of Clean Development Project at the University of East Anglia.