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 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 from the Conference of the Parties (COP). The World Bank serves as an interim trustee for the GCF. The Board launched the Initial Resource Mobilisation process in the spring 2014 for all interested donors with the aim to secure funding for the years 2015-18. During the process around 9.3 billion USD was pledged and in Lima COP more pledges were made raising the amount to over 10 billion USD. Finland announced aiming at 80 million euros in the period 2015-18 and pledged 34.7 million euros for 2015. Climate finance as such and support to the Green Climate Fund play important role in the negotiations aiming at agreeing a new climate agreement later this year.