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handle is hein.crs/goveaqq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Updated June 1, 2017 International Environmental Assistance Many governments hold that environmental degradation and climate change pose international and trans-boundary risks to human populations, economies, and ecosystems. To confront these challenges, governments have negotiated various international agreements to protect the environment, reduce pollution, conserve natural resources, and promote sustainable growth. While some observers call upon industrialized countries to take the lead in addressing these issues, many recognize that efforts are unlikely to be sufficient without similar measures being taken in lower- income countries. However, lower-income countries, which tend to focus on poverty reduction and economic growth, may not have the financial resources, technological know- how, and/or institutional capacity to deploy environmentally protective measures on their own. Therefore, international financial assistance, or foreign aid, has been a principal method for governments to support actions on global environmental problems in lower-income countries. Often, this assistance can serve as a cost-effective strategy for donor countries to provide greater market access for domestic goods and services abroad and increased environmental benefits at home. The United States and other industrialized countries have committed to providing financial assistance for global environmental initiatives through a variety of multilateral agreements, including the Montreal Protocol (1987), the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992), and the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (1994). International financial assistance takes many forms, from fiscal transfers to market transactions. It may include grants, loans, loan guarantees, export credits, insurance products, and private sector investment. It may be structured as official bilateral development assistance or as contributions to multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (U NFCCC) The 1992 UNFCCC was the first formal international agreement to acknowledge and address human-driven climate change. The U.S. Senate provided its advice and consent to the convention's ratification in 1992, the same year it was concluded (Treaty Number: 102-38, October 7, 1992). The UNFCCC entered into force in 1994. As of March 2016, 196 governments are parties to the UNFCCC. As a framework convention, the UNFCCC provides general obligations for all parties but leaves them free to design their own means to fulfill these obligations. The convention acknowledges that climate change is a common concern to humankind and, accordingly, requires parties to (1) inventory, report, and control their human-related greenhouse gas emissions; (2) cooperate in preparing to adapt to climate change; and (3) assess and review the effective implementation of the convention. The UNFCCC also commits the higher-income parties (i.e., those listed in Annex II of the convention as members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1992) to seek to mobilize financial assistance to help lower-income countries meet certain obligations common to all parties. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) The GCF is one of the international financial institutions connected to the UNFCCC. The fund was proposed by parties to the UNFCCC during the 2009 Conference of Parties (COP) in Copenhagen, Denmark, and its design was agreed to by all parties during the 2011 COP in Durban, South Africa. The GCF was made operational in 2014. The GCF aims to assist lower-income countries in their efforts to combat climate change through the provision of grants and other concessional financing for mitigation and adaptation projects, programs, policies, and activities. The GCF is capitalized by contributions from donor countries and other sources, potentially including innovative mechanisms and the private sector. The GCF currently complements many of the existing multilateral climate change funds (e.g., the Global Environment Facility, the Climate Investment Funds, and the Adaptation Fund). However, some parties believe that, as one of the official financial mechanisms of the UNFCCC, it may eventually replace or subsume the other funds. Many countries, specifically lower-income countries, expect that the GCF will become very large (i.e., in the range of several tens of billions to over $100 billion annually) and serve as the predominant institution for climate change assistance in the developing world. These countries believe that the agreement to establish the GCF within the framework of the United Nations has been a key success in the recent international negotiations. Other countries, however, would rather see a smaller role for the GCF, preferring instead to have private investment and other financing flow through a variety of channels. Some parties also caution that ambitious steps need to be taken to ensure that the GCF is operated appropriately, meeting a strict set of fiduciary standards and social safeguards, in order to achieve an adequate buy-in by donor countries of its effectiveness and by recipient countries of its legitimacy. Information about GCF activities, organization, policies, projects, and contributions is available on its website at http://www.greenclimate.fund/. https://crsreports.congress. go

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