THE DAWN of Green Climate Fund (GCF) and interests of the international community to save countries from unwanted climate change disasters is becoming a burning issue of the present era. The need for the Green Climate Fund was felt for the first time during the 15th Conference of Parties, held in Copenhagen Denmark. This fund is expected to play a vital role in encountering various issues of climate change including adaptation and mitigation practices. The central idea of this Fund is to mobilize the resources through the developed countries and enable the developing countries to deal with the devastation the climate change is causing to them including forest fires, drought, floods, melting of ice caps and many more.

GCF is expected to bring with it numerous benefits for the developing nations. The significant uses of the fund would be the promotion of green economy and green businesses. The tier of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), during a consultation at COP 17, put forward the thought that GCF could be significant in bringing sustainability to business strategies around the globe. The CFOs identified that GCF could help attain some major targets and goals in terms of energy efficiency rates, environmental regulatory compliance, stability and security of energy supply and adequate infrastructure.

Further emphasis was put on the easy availability and purchase of green technologies through GCF. It would play a momentous role in planning investments in equipment for increasing energy efficiency; generating on-site renewable energy or reducing industrial emissions. Significantly, it will assist the developing countries to allow technology cooperation and transfer. According to Dr. Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, former director general of Pakistan Meteorological Department, “The Green Fund would help identify climate friendly technologies, facilitate their deployment and adaptation to the needs of the developing countries, build national and regional technology management capacity; and support the research, development and demonstration of new climate friendly technologies”.

Green Climate FundFarrukh Iqbal Khan, lead negotiator of Pakistan delegation, claimed at the Durban climate summit that “The International Energy Agency (IEA) report has already predicted that with the current emissions rate the impacts of climate change will become irreversible by 2017, and so we quickly need money for adaptation in developing and vulnerable countries.” In order to ensure a sustainable influx of finances into the fund, several developed countries have pledged handsome amounts to be contributed. The IEA states, “the world could need around $280 billion to finance energy efficiency initiatives in developing countries”. Amongst the developing countries, Pakistan won the Robin Hood Award at the UN climate talks (COP 17) for proposing financial transaction tax (FTT) as an innovative source of financing the Green Climate Fund. The award was given by the youth constituency of the UNFCCC, known as YOUNGO. FTT is a practical and good option, with a small levy of 0.01%-0.05% imposed on the trade of stocks, derivates, currency, and other financial instruments.

After all the tedious efforts that the climate change negotiators, nations and governments will put in making the GCF feasible, there arises a significant point of concern, which is the transparent flow of the funds and achievement of goals. The developing countries demand a transparent way of prioritizing countries for the allocation of money. Throughout the geographic divisions, some of the regions are hit hard by the climate change happenings; while the rest remain comparatively stable, therefore, the justice calls for fair allocation of funds to the vulnerable regions on priority.

Moreover, a matter of critical distress during the COP 17 remained that the funds current stewardship is with the World Bank. There seemed to be a strong reluctance of the developing countries to withhold the fund with the WB. The developed countries wanted Secretariat of GEF to take up the fund, which is ultimately linked to the WB, however, this option is a complete no-no for the developing countries. The developing nations tried to look out for alternative architectures that will speed up the fund’s transition away from the international financial institution. Developing states, regional organizations such as the African Union, and civil society wanted it to be either the UN convention secretariat or the UN office in Geneva.

The writer is an environment and climate change analyst, based at Ontario, Canada

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