Ambassador Franz Perrez belongs to the Swiss diplomatic team to the UNFCCC driving the current negotiations for Climate Change. Since Cancun and the acceptance of the principle of a Green Climate Fund, a Transitional Committee is building up the Fund. From inside this marathon Ambassador Perrez gives an exclusive view on the state of the negotiations. He has a lot to tell.

TGJ: Who came up with the idea of the Green Climate Fund, and when, at the very beginning? Would you say that the Geneva meeting back in September 2010 was a critical moment? Why?

It is difficult to say who was the first to launch the idea of a new Climate Fund. The request for additional financial support and for an additional fund has been formulated by developing countries for several years. In 2008, Mexico tabled a concrete proposal for a World Climate Change Fund. A first critical step towards the establishment of the Green Climate Fund was clearly the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen where the donors agreed in principle to support developing countries with fast start financing of 30 billion US$ for the period of 2010-2012 and committed to mobilize jointly 100 billion US$ a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries.

The ministerial Geneva Dialogue in September 2010 was another critical steppingstone: during that meeting, the US Special Envoy on Climate Change, Todd Stern, outlined a very concrete proposal for a process for establishing such a fund. The Geneva meeting was indeed a critical moment, and for several reasons: it took place at a crucial moment in the lead-up to Cancun as it had become evident that success in Cancun could only be achieved if progress was made on financing.

Moreover, the representatives of the private sector participating in the Geneva meeting had sent a coherent message that clear commitments were needed in Cancun. Finally, the constructive and result oriented atmosphere during the Geneva meeting and its informality allowed the US proposal to develop further and also to catalyze concrete divergent views and proposals. This created a momentum for the further negotiations with regard to financing climate change that was maintained up to Cancun.

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