5 Do’s and Don’ts for the Green Climate Fund

This briefing by the World Resources Institute provides five sets of recommendations ('do's and don'ts') for the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as they finalize the Fund's operational design in Songdo, Korea. The document emphasizes that the GCF's operationalization is a critical step toward unlocking climate finance progress for the global climate agreement planned for COP 21 in 2015.

• The GCF Board should establish funding criteria that link directly to desired results to attract ambitious proposals, while ensuring that funding benefits various entities across the value chain rather than just those channeling the resources.
• To incentivize ambitious climate-resilient investments, the GCF should maintain a higher appetite for financial risk than other investors, but it should pass on risks that can be managed more cost-effectively by the entities channeling resources or executing projects.
• The Board is advised to implement a broad accreditation system for institutions, including those from developing countries, and to avoid further delays in the accreditation process while maintaining standards appropriate to the risk of activities.
• The GCF should approve ambitious, scalable, and replicable results based on country priorities for its initial phase, avoiding the mistake of becoming bogged down in a detailed monitoring and evaluation system before gaining operational experience.
• The proposal-approval process should balance top-down strategic proposals with bottom-up opportunities and use competitive processes to drive innovation; the Board should use scoring tools for support rather than as a substitute for its own judgment.

APA

World Resources Institute (2014). 5 Do’s and Don’ts for the Green Climate Fund. https://www.wri.org/insights/5-dos-and-donts-green-climate-fund

Chicago

World Resources Institute. 5 Do’s and Don’ts for the Green Climate Fund. 2014. https://www.wri.org/insights/5-dos-and-donts-green-climate-fund.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=5 Do’s and Don’ts for the Green Climate Fund |date=19 May 2014 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/5-dos-and-donts-green-climate-fund |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2014dos, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{5 Do’s and Don’ts for the Green Climate Fund}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2014}, month = may, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/5-dos-and-donts-green-climate-fund}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }