摘要：With climate finance being top of the agenda at the UN 26th Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow (UK), actors from the Global South (ie, countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, most of which are low-income and middle-income countries) emphasise that access to climate finance should be a key component of COP26 discussions. A ministerial meeting convened by the COP26 Presidency (assumed by the UK) in March, 2021, highlighted the urgent need for countries in the Global South to have access to climate finance to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans. Ministerial representatives from countries in the Global South “recognised that whilst the amount of climate finance was increasing, there were barriers to accessing the finance needed to support the delivery of climate action and sustainable development… [specifically from multilateral] climate funds, including the Green Climate Fund”. 1 In response to requests from countries in the Global South, the COP26 Presidency, in partnership with Fiji, created a Taskforce on Access to Finance, initially aimed at “deliver[ing] a step change in access to finance for climate action by delivering a new, programmatic approach to support partners’ climate action plans”. 2 Considering the Taskforce’s developing workplan, we argue that policies and modalities on access to finance from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) should be discussed alongside debates on transparency and accountability to ensure that climate finance is democratised.
