The most recent performance review of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has shown that the organization has an “underdeveloped” strategy for managing project risks since it overlooks important concerns, lacks consistency, and makes it difficult to identify who is accountable.
According to the independent report’s principal author, Archi Rastogi, there are obvious dangers involved in carrying out climate-related projects like building new infrastructure. Projects, however, may sometimes lead to maladaptation, when they actively worsen the consequences of climate change on communities rather than assisting them in coping with them.
He noted that by failing to recognize or effectively manage them, the organization became too cautious.
For a long time, developing countries have encouraged the fund to take greater chances and give awards to more innovative, smaller-scale projects that other funds won’t support.
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The GCF board decided in 2016 to adopt a “high level of risk appetite” and to “take on risks that other funds/institutions are not able or are willing to take”.
The Green Climate Fund was established in 2010 as a component of the accord between wealthy and underdeveloped nations that served as the foundation for the Paris climate accord in 2015. So far, it has invested almost $20 billion in financing climate projects all across the world.
The fund has made some contentious investments, and former workers have voiced worries about the GCF’s project vetting, despite the newest study accusing it of being unduly cautious.
Story was adapted from Climate Home News
