By Julie Mandoyan | August 27, 2012 - 17:00 GMT 
The Green Climate Fund held its first Board meeting in Geneva last week (23-25 August). The organization will be the main channel to disburse the 100 billion USD to be allocated yearly— according to pledges — to climate change adaptation and mitigation by 2020. The meeting, which occurred in a “cordial” atmosphere, had been expected for several months but was delayed because of disagreement over the the selection of the Board members.
Created under article 11 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban (2011), the Green Climate Fund was established with the purpose of making a significant contribution to the global effort towards attaining the goals set by the international community to combat climate change. It will fund projects supporting mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
In Geneva, for three days, the Green Climate Fund’s Board, co-chaired by Zaheer Fakir of South Africa and Ewan McDonald of Australia, focused on practical points regarding the meeting. They mainly discussed the primary steps of the set-up of the Fund. In a press release from 25 August, its interim secretariat noted what it considers as a success, and a precedent for the next meetings of the Board: “The Board of the Green Climate Fund successfully wrapped up its first meeting today by taking a number of decisions that will lay the foundations for the operationalization of the Fund.” Confirming this impression, Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth USA reported that “the atmosphere was cordial.” That is quite an achievement if one considers what lays behind the GCF: 100 billion dollars, which corresponds to twice the amount disbursed by the World Bank.
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