Green Climate Fund (GCF)

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The purpose of the GCF is to make a significant and ambitious contribution to the global efforts towards attaining the goals set by the international community to combat climate change. The GCF will contribute to the achievement of the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC. In the context of sustainable development, the GCF will promote the paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change, taking into account the needs of those developing countries particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. The GCF will play a key role in channelling new, additional, adequate and predictable financial resources to developing countries and will catalyse climate finance, both public and private, and at the international and national levels. The GCF will pursue a country-driven approach and promote and strengthen engagement at the country level through effective involvement of relevant institutions and stakeholders. The GCF will strive to maximize the impact of its funding for adaptation and mitigation, and seek a balance between the two, while promoting environmental, social, economic and development co-benefits and taking a gender-sensitive approach. The GCF will be governed and supervised by a Board that will have full responsibility for funding decisions and will receive the guidance of the COP. The Fund will establish an independent secretariat, however, in the meantime the COP requested the UNFCCC Secretariat jointly with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Secretariat to take the necessary administrative steps to set up the interim secretariat of the Green Climate Fund as an autonomous unit within the UNFCCC secretariat premises. The GCF will have a trustee with administrative competence to manage the financial assets of the Fund. The World Bank serves as an interim trustee for the GCF, subject to a review three years after the operationalization of the GCF.