How can the Green Climate Fund initiate a paradigm shift?

This policy brief examines how the Green Climate Fund (GCF) can achieve its objective of initiating a 'paradigm shift' towards low-emissions and climate-resilient development. It argues that such a shift requires moving from isolated projects to programmatic approaches, ensuring strong country ownership, and providing clear incentives for ambition in proposal design.

• The Green Climate Fund's primary objective is to facilitate a 'paradigm shift' toward development pathways that are both low-carbon and climate-resilient. This goal requires high ambition in both the design of funded activities and the provision of financial resources to the fund.
• A paradigm shift is defined as moving away from practices incompatible with climate challenges. In mitigation, this specifically means transitioning from fossil fuel-based economies to renewable energies that are more decentralized and locally controlled, rather than simply improving the efficiency of existing fossil fuel infrastructure.
• To achieve a paradigm shift, the GCF should transition from a 'project-by-project' approach to 'programmatic approaches'. These programmatic efforts could link several small projects through broader provisions, such as national or local legislation, to allow for better management and adjustment.
• Strong country ownership is presented as an essential prerequisite for a paradigm shift, as new structures must be embedded in a recipient country's own strategies to ensure long-term sustainability after GCF funding ends.
• The authors suggest a funding model where the GCF provides better funding conditions to recipient countries that demonstrate higher levels of ambition in their proposals, while still ensuring a minimum level of funding (a 'floor allocation') for the most vulnerable countries.

APA

Harmeling, S., & Grießhaber, L. (2013). How can the Green Climate Fund initiate a paradigm shift? Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Policy-brief_GCF-paradigm-shift_LR1.pdf

Chicago

Harmeling, Sven, and Linde Grießhaber. How can the Green Climate Fund initiate a paradigm shift? Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2013. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Policy-brief_GCF-paradigm-shift_LR1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Harmeling |first1=Sven |last2=Grießhaber |first2=Linde |title=How can the Green Climate Fund initiate a paradigm shift? |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=2013 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Policy-brief_GCF-paradigm-shift_LR1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{harmeling2013how, author = {Harmeling, Sven and Grießhaber, Linde}, title = {{How can the Green Climate Fund initiate a paradigm shift?}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2013}, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/Policy-brief_GCF-paradigm-shift_LR1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }