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India’s Access to International Climate Finance
India has long argued for more direct control over international climate finance through a mechanism called enhanced direct access. Yet, it has a poor track record, and weak institutional structures to identify large-scale transformational changes that are compatible with enhanced direct access. As the Green Climate Fund moves towards full operationalisation, it is argued that India’s engagement with the GCF could achieve multiple goals of development and climate change through more national control over the uses of climate finance.
The author is grateful to Navroz K Dubash for his generous time and inputs during the writing of this article. The author would also like to acknowledge the Centre for Policy Research and the Overseas Development Institute for providing the financial support for this research under the project “Coordination in Accessing Climate Finance.” All views and opinions are the responsibility of the author alone.
The Paris Agreement signals a renewed commitment to mobilise $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020, and to continue mobilising climate finance at this level until 2025. Post Paris, finance is expected to play a key role in helping countries effectively implement their national climate plans. However, several issues remain around operationalising climate finance. Article 4.3 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) states that the responsibility of providing financial assistance to developing countries lies with developed countries. Against this backdrop, the Green Climate Fund (GCF), an operating entity of the Financial Mechanism of the UNFCCC, will be a central institution to serve the Paris Agreement.
Beyond provision of finance, however, there are several key issues salient to how the funds will be used to finance low-emission and climate-resilient development. For example, the GCF is evolving a new model of multilateral financing that places great emphasis on leveraging finance from the private sector as well. It is also evolving rules to ensure that equal amounts of funding is provided to mitigation and adaptation, through both public and private sources of finance (UNFCCC 2011).
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