Sustainability and inclusion
GCF ensures that the climate finance it allocates does not harm local communities or ecosystems.
GCF ensures that the climate finance it allocates does not harm local communities or ecosystems.
GCF standards include equitably managing environmental and social risks in relation to its activities, as well as implementing an Indigenous People’s Policy to reflect the importance of fully and effectively engaging with indigenous peoples in the design, development and implementation of the strategies and activities to be financed by GCF, while respecting their rights. GCF is also the first climate finance mechanism to mainstream gender perspectives from the outset of its operations as an essential decision-making element for the deployment of its resources.
Environmental and social safeguards
GCF's Environment and Social Management System (ESMS) is made up of processes and procedures which help GCF identify, analyse, avoid, minimise, and mitigate any potential adverse environmental and social impact of climate finance activities. The ESMS is designed not only to avoid harm, but to improve the environmental and social performance of GCF and the activities it finances consistently over time.
Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous Peoples are unique and a distinct stakeholder of GCF. The rights of Indigenous Peoples are affirmed by international human rights instruments, including binding treaties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Indigenous Peoples have invaluable and critical contributions to make to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Yet they are also facing serious threats to the realization of their rights from climate change actions.
Gender
The impacts of climate change affect women and men differently. Women are the hardest hit by dramatic shifts in climatic conditions. Women’s mortality from climate-related disasters is higher than that of men. Compared to men, domestic burdens (e.g. collection of firewood and water) of women increase substantially with various manifestations of climate change.
Women tend to rely more on natural resources for their livelihood. Any decline in land and biomass productivity affects women more than men, especially in rural areas. In urban areas, after climate-related disasters, it is harder for poor women than for poor men to recover their economic status and welfare. Women, as well as men, significantly contribute to combating climate change as knowledgeable small-scale farmers and leaders of climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives.
Seeking redress
A number of independent units have been set up as third-party guarantors of ethical GCF practice. When allegations of environmental and social harm are raised in association with GCF activities, it is possible for affected parties to contact one of these units, the Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM). The IRM operates outside of the GCF Secretariat and reports directly to the GCF Board, which oversees GCF management.
Visit the Independent Redress Mechanism website
