Publications
The Green Climate Fund issues a range of publications for our direct and indirect stakeholders on a diversity of issues – for the general public to industry experts. Stay in tune with our mission and activities around the planet with the issues that speak to you.
Featured publications
Country platforms for climate finance
This brochure describes GCF’s approach to country platforms, including an overview of the concept, the potential impact and the end-to-end support GCF can provide.
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Locally Led Climate Action
The Green Climate Fund is committed to ensuring climate finance reaches the most vulnerable and to scaling up direct access through Locally Led Climate Action (LLCA).
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GCF's digital agenda: a briefing
March 2021
In order to deliver on the GCF-1 ambitions, the Secretariat has prioritized becoming a fully digital organization. It has developed the GCF Digital Agenda: 2020 – 2023, which has four objectives: Increase operational efficiency to improve speed of delivery Enhance transparency and accountability Improve GCF’s capacity to actively identify and manage risks Reduce workload and create a safe, innovative and flexible workplace In order to achieve these objectives, the Digital Agenda has...
Country programme guidance
January 2021
Green Climate Fund (GCF) Country Programmes are the cornerstone of each country’s pipeline development with GCF. It is the first stage of the updated GCF project and programme cycle, and forms the basis for prioritising the further development of funding proposals for projects and programmes submitted by Accredited Entities on behalf of countries for funding. Countries are encouraged to develop a GCF Country Programme to drive their project and programme pipelines with GCF, and countries may...
The Green Climate Fund and the International Development Finance Club: A strategic alliance to realize the full potential of public development banks in financing the green and climate-resilient transition
November 2020
In the current pandemic we are facing, Public Development Banks are repositioning their role in driving climate ambition and building momentum in the lead up to COP 26. The IDFC, a group of 26 national and regional PDBs worldwide committed to aligning their activities with the Paris agreement, and GCF, set up by the UN to help developing countries combat climate change, have formed a strategic alliance to help PDBs finance a green and climate resilient transition. This joint working paper...
GCF in Brief: The Green Climate Fund: Realising the Climate Potential of Public Development Banks
November 2020
The Green Climate Fund is working to realise the potential of Public Development Banks to finance the green and climate-resilient transition. Ahead of the first ever gathering of 450+ public development banks for the Financing in Common Summit from 9-11 November, this factsheet sets out how GCF is partnering with PDBs around the world to drive the financial transition that the world needs to reach its climate goals.
Project Preparation Facility Guidelines
October 2020
GCF's Project Preparation Facility (PPF) provides financial support to Accredited Entities (AE) in preparing funding proposals for submission to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The PPF supports AEs in preparing full Funding Proposals for consideration by the Board, based on a Concept Note that has been cleared for project preparation support vis-àvis GCF investment criteria. This publication provides practical guidelines to help AEs in preparing and submitting PPF requests to the GCF secretariat.
Tipping or turning point: Scaling up climate finance in the era of COVID-19
October 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world to a tipping point or a turning point in the fight against climate change. Decisions taken by leaders today to revive economies will either entrench our dependence on fossil fuels or put us on a path to achieve the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For the COVID-19 pandemic to prove a turning point, climate action and COVID-19 economic stimulus measures must be mutually supportive; and developing countries must be able to...
Enhancing access to climate finance through readiness support
September 2020
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) are capitalising on their shared ability to help developing countries take climate action. Nowhere is this clearer than in GGGI’s role as a major delivery partner of grant funds from GCF’s Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme (the Readiness Programme) – designed to widen the scope of climate-focused financial resources for developing countries. GCF’s Readiness Programme is particularly well suited to help bolster...
Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund: at a glance
July 2020
While the private sector plays an increasingly important role in renewable energy markets, there is a dearth of business support for climate adaptation, especially for smallholder farmers who bear the brunt of global warming. The innovative Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) project draws in private sector investment to help small- scale farmers adapt, made possible by GCF’s anchor investment. This case study for FP078: Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund provides an overview of the...
Bhutan for life: at a glance
July 2020
GCF joined the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Royal Government of Bhutan and other partners to create the Bhutan for Life project, which was approved in 2017. At the heart of this conservation effort is an innovative financial structure to permanently protect Bhutan’s network of Protected Areas. This case study for FP050: Bhutan for Life provides an overview of the project, expected results and impacts, as well as GCF's unique and innovative role.
GCF Programming Manual: An introduction to the Green Climate Fund project cycle and project development tools for full-size projects
July 2020
This document is no longer available The GCF Programming Manual, the Appraisal Guidance along with some of its annexes have been removed from circulation. Updated guidance on Concept Notes and Funding Proposals is currently under development and will be provided when complete.
Report on the progress of the Green Climate Fund during its initial resource mobilization period (January 2015 through March 2020)
April 2020
The Green Climate Fund is a unique institution. It is the manifestation of a joint global commitment to fight climate change and a crucial element of the Paris Agreement. Over the past five years, it has developed from an idea of solidarity between developed and developing countries to a crucial force in countering climate change and its effects. Over the past five years, GCF has committed over USD 5.6 billion of its own investment to support 129 projects in 108 countries and delivered more...
Synergies between climate finance mechanisms
April 2020
Collaboration between climate finance funds can enhance countries' resources and results. A report jointly commissioned by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) shows that country-driven coordination and collaboration between funds in blending finance can lead to better development outcomes, enhanced efficiency, and increased financing in developing countries. The study, "Synergies Between Climate Finance Mechanisms," is the result of a multilevel analysis of...
The Green Climate Fund’s Private Sector Facility
October 2019
GCF has a Private Sector Facility (PSF), with the primary mission to engage both the local and global private sector to support climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in developing countries. This brochure provides an overview of the PSF.
Raising ambition. Empowering action: Report on the progress of the Green Climate Fund during its initial resource mobilization period (January 2015 to July 2019)
October 2019
Since approving its first projects in 2015, GCF has grown and delivered. In these first four and a half years of operation, GCF has become the world’s largest dedicated climate fund, equally committed to supporting countries in adapting to climate change and to driving the transformation to low-emission economies. This report covers the results of the work of the GCF and its partners, showing how our resources are already transforming lives and driving a paradigm shift. With this solid track...
Achieving the Paris Agreement: How GCF raises climate ambition and empowers action
October 2019
The goal of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is to promote a paradigm shift in developing countries towards low-emission, climate-resilient development pathways. GCF supports the implementation and ambition cycle of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by mobilising the necessary resources and building and investment environment that can help developing countries identify, design and implement transformational climate interventions.
Raising ambition. Empowering action.
August 2019
The investment decisions we make now and over the next few years will determine the world we and our children will live in. The next decade is crucial in achieving the necessary transition towards a low-emissions, climate-resilient global economy that is the foundation for a safe planet. In only four years, GCF has allocated over USD 5 billion of the USD 7 billion received from contributors. As a result, its Board launched the first GCF replenishment in October 2018. An ambitious and...
Accelerating REDD+ implementation
June 2019
REDD+ is vital for global efforts to combat climate change. The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 and entering into force in 2020, treats forests as an integral part of the climate solution, and highlights REDD+ as key intervention to achieve the new ambitious global target. The UNFCCC specifically recognized the GCF as a key funding avenue for channeling REDD+ RBPs.1 The GCF began offering such payments in 2017, and funding activities that are necessary to achieve REDD+ results since it...
Turning ambition into action: How GCF catalyses transformational change
May 2019
GCF is the world’s largest dedicated fund helping developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and enhance their ability to respond to climate change. It was set up by the UNFCCC in 2010, and has a crucial role in serving the Paris Agreement, supporting the goal of keeping average global temperature rise well below 2C. It does this by channelling climate finance to developing countries, which have joined other nations in committing to climate action. This publication provides a...