Green Climate Fund head waters down UN speech calling fund 'outdated'

The new chief of the world’s biggest climate fund watered down her speech at the United Nations headquarters to remove comments calling the organization “outdated” and omit an apology over the state of the fund, just hours before its delivery Wednesday. In the original draft, which the organization sent to Devex in advance, Green Climate Fund Executive Director Mafalda Duarte laid out detailed plans for reform. A GCF spokesman promoted it as a “vision setting speech.” But Duarte significantly altered those remarks during her address at the U.N. Climate Ambition Summit in New York, instead heaping praise on the fund’s work to date. Prepared remarks briefed to journalists tend to deviate very little upon delivery, so Duarte’s case was unusual. Duarte did say the time had come for the fund to “embrace reform” and announced plans to manage $50 billion by 2030. GCF has received extensive criticism over how hard its money is for countries to access, with bureaucratic procedures making the process especially difficult for lower-income countries. Duarte, who took the helm last month, was brought in to improve the $12.8 billion fund, including its accessibility to climate vulnerable countries. “What we have today, I’m sorry to say, is not tailor-made but one-size-fits-all,” said the draft, but Duarte omitted the apology from her speech. Instead, Duarte’s delivered remarks included additional lines praising GCF’s work and reputation. Long associated with the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP, GCF was created in 2010 and went on to become a financial mechanism for the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Duarte’s draft text also said GCF was now a “single blueprint, albeit one enhanced over time, which instead of simplifying access has made it more complex, increased transaction costs, and is now outdated” — but the reference to outdatedness was also removed from her speech. Meanwhile, “increased transaction costs” became “with high transaction costs.” Also removed from the draft speech were Duarte’s comments addressing people who “fought hard to bring it [the GCF] into existence.” The draft text acknowledged that these people wanted “to redefine the norms of climate finance” and “did not want a run-of-the-mill development bank,” but Duarte did not say that at the U.N. “You wanted something new altogether to drive nationally owned and local impact, to open up a new network of partners then largely inaccessible to international financial institutions,” said the draft text, but Duarte cut the entire line. Meanwhile, Duarte’s delivered speech advocated for “maximizing private sector investments,” which replaced a draft text line on her planned efforts against “one-off projects.” Now was time to “embrace reform,” Duarte said, omitting “for our future” as planned. She said: “My vision for the Green Climate Fund is that by 2030, we can efficiently and impactfully manage a total capitalization of $50 billion — or 50 by 30 for short,” apparently deviating from a planned target of “at least” $50 billion in the draft text. GCF will do this by accelerating its project review process and working to “coalesce multiple partners and investments behind a singular, country-led vision for transforming whole systems” — something climate experts have long been calling for. A well financed replenishment is key to GCF’s plans, Duarte said. This was echoed by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, in a speech at the same summit, who said funding GCF was “critical.” While GCF “has had problems in terms of the complexity of its governance … that must be addressed.” The institution has “still worked to bridge the gap in a significant way for many countries,” Mottley said.