Accountability at the Green Climate Fund: Taking a Look at the Independent Redress Mechanism

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Prasad, Siddhanth^{a; *} | Kaushik, Malvika^b

Affiliations: [a] Lecturer at the Jindal Global Law School, India; previously an intern at the Green Climate Fund | [b] Research Assistant and Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of India

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: Given the pivotal role of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in climate finance and the importance of ensuring that it is accountable to its stakeholders, this analysis takes a look at the GCF’s recently created Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM) – a grievance redress mechanism that entertains complaints from people affected or potentially affected by a GCF project and from developing countries that have been denied funding by the GCF Board. The analysis provides an overview of the tools and methods that the IRM uses to hold the GCF to account and explores some of its procedural innovations. It argues that although the IRM lacks the power to issue binding decisions, it adequately makes up for this through the use of soft power.

Keywords: Green Climate Fund, accountability, grievance redress mechanism, alternative dispute resolution

DOI: 10.3233/EPL-200211

Journal: Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 165-170, 2020