If ECO may be so bold, here’s a wonderful idea. The COP should take advantage of the opportunity to give guidance to the Green Climate Fund, as it aims to begin distributing money by the second half of 2015. The COP could play a most helpful role in providing the following guidance, requesting the GCF Board:
• Increase the transparency and accessibility of its proceedings by immediately implementing live webcasts of all future Board meetings.
• Adopt an exclusion list policy, as part of the Investment Framework, that clearly defines what the GCF will not finance, including any direct or indirect support for fossil fuels.
• Ensure a decision-making process in the absence of consensus that is one-person-one-vote, to maintain balanced governance of the GCF, thus rejecting any link between decision-making power and the size of contributions.
• Expedite the pilot program for enhanced direct access with an view to reaching local communities, including indigenous peoples.
• Reaffirm that contributors may not target their contributions to specific windows, in line with the Board’s discussion at its last meeting in Barbados.
• Request the Secretariat to reflect geographic and gender balance in its staffing.
It’s particularly welcome that the G77 and China are supporting webcasting of GCF Board meetings, while the US and Japan have inexplicably led a charge to block that from being included in the guidance.
ECO is disappointed and confused by this. It is unacceptable for these countries to oppose increased transparency of an important international body.
All other Parties should support the common-sense measure of live webcasting, especially the 47 signatories to the Aarhus Convention. Otherwise, perhaps they prefer to explain to the Aarhus compliance committee how their silence on this important matter complies with their legal obligation to promote participation and access to information in international
forums.
