The contribution of countries to climate change, and their capacity to prevent and cope with its
consequences, varies enormously. The Convention and the Protocol therefore foresee financial assistance from
Parties with more resources to those less endowed and more vulnerable. Developed country Parties (Annex II
Parties) shall provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties in implementing the
Convention. To facilitate this, the Convention established a Financial Mechanism to provide funds to
developing country Parties.
The Convention, under its Article 11, states that the operation of the Financial Mechanism is entrusted to
one or more existing international entities. The operation of the Financial Mechanism is partly entrusted to
the Global Environment Facility (GEF). At COP 17 Parties decided to
designate the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as an operating entity of
the Financial Mechanism of the Convention, in accordance with Article 11 of the Convention. The Financial
Mechanism is accountable to the COP, which decides on its climate change policies, programme priorities and
eligibility criteria for funding.
The Kyoto Protocol also recognizes, under its Article 11, the need for the Financial Mechanism to fund
activities by developing country Parties.
In addition to providing guidance to the GEF, Parties have established four special funds: the Special Climate
Change Fund (SCCF), the Least Developed Countries
Fund (LDCF), both managed by the GEF, and the GCF under the
Convention; and the Adaptation Fund (AF) under the Kyoto
At COP 16 Parties decided to establish the Standing
Committee on Finance to assist the COP in exercising its functions in relation to the Financial Mechanism
of the Convention.
Launched at COP 17 and extended for one year at COP 18, the work programme on long-term finance concluded its work at
COP 19 in Warsaw. COP 19, in decision 3/CP.19, included activities on long-term climate finance for the
period 2014-2020. These include biennial submissions by developed country Parties on their strategies and
approaches for scaling up climate finance from 2014 to 2020, in-session workshops to facilitate deliberations
on long-term climate finance and biennial high level ministerial dialogues on climate finance starting in
2014. More information here.
Funding to climate change actvities is also available through bilateral, regional
and multilateral channels. More information on funding is available here.