14 July 2011: The second meeting of the Transitional Committee for the design of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) discussed the main objectives for the Fund, how it should be governed and how it could most effectively raise and deliver climate finance to developing countries.

The Transitional Committee meeting took place in Tokyo, Japan, from 13-14 July 2011, following a one-day workshop with presentations and discussions on experience with existing international funds and institutions. The Committee agreed on a work plan for concluding its report and recommendations to the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UNFCCC in Durban, South Africa, at the end of this year.

Ambassador Burhan Gafoor (Singapore) and Ewen McDonald (Australia) were elected as Vice-Chairs of the Committee. Four work streams convened during the meeting on: scope, guiding principles and cross-cutting issues; governance and institutional arrangements; operational modalities; and monitoring and evaluation.

Under workstream III, on operational modalities, committee members considered finance entry points, managing finance, including thematic funding windows, accessing finance and finance entry points. Areas of potential convergence include: the need for the GCF to be equipped to handle a broad range of possible financing sources; the use of a range of instruments to disburse finance to ensure delivery of finance at scale and across a range of activity types; and the prominent role that grants should play within the range of instruments used by the GCF to disburse finance, as well as non-grant financing instruments to finance identified activities. [UNFCCC Press Release] [Workstream III- Report of the Co-facilitators] [Meeting Website]