Pia Treichel , Michai Robertson , Emily Wilkinson , Jack Corbett
{"title":"“Scale and access to the Green climate Fund: Big challenges for small island developing States”","authors":"Pia Treichel , Michai Robertson , Emily Wilkinson , Jack Corbett","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102943","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Small island developing States (SIDS) are among the first and the most severely impacted by climate change and thus have been designated as a priority for adaptation finance. But despite their urgent need and <em>prima facie</em> case for climate justice, SIDS have been proportionally less successful than other vulnerable country groups in accessing climate funding via the Green Climate Fund (GCF). This research extends existing studies that seek to understand the SIDS-specific challenges to accessing international public climate finance by developing a new explanation based on data collected via a multi-methods research design which draws on interviews with SIDS negotiators and officials, surveys, and roundtables, as well as content analysis of GCF and UNFCCC documents. Drawing on ideas about the social construction of scale and the emerging literature on the financialization of international development funding, we argue that SIDS’ limited access to climate funding from the GCF is the consequence of assumptions in development models of the benefits of largeness, with largeness equated with value for money. The perceived advantages of large-scale programs compound the injustice of climate change for SIDS, whose communities have contributed little to the problem yet struggle to gain access to meaningful levels of assistance. Improving access to climate finance for SIDS will require changes to the systems of access and this cannot happen unless ideas about the costs and benefits of different scales are disrupted.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"89 ","pages":"Article 102943"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Environmental Change","FirstCategoryId":"6","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937802400147X","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Small island developing States (SIDS) are among the first and the most severely impacted by climate change and thus have been designated as a priority for adaptation finance. But despite their urgent need and prima facie case for climate justice, SIDS have been proportionally less successful than other vulnerable country groups in accessing climate funding via the Green Climate Fund (GCF). This research extends existing studies that seek to understand the SIDS-specific challenges to accessing international public climate finance by developing a new explanation based on data collected via a multi-methods research design which draws on interviews with SIDS negotiators and officials, surveys, and roundtables, as well as content analysis of GCF and UNFCCC documents. Drawing on ideas about the social construction of scale and the emerging literature on the financialization of international development funding, we argue that SIDS’ limited access to climate funding from the GCF is the consequence of assumptions in development models of the benefits of largeness, with largeness equated with value for money. The perceived advantages of large-scale programs compound the injustice of climate change for SIDS, whose communities have contributed little to the problem yet struggle to gain access to meaningful levels of assistance. Improving access to climate finance for SIDS will require changes to the systems of access and this cannot happen unless ideas about the costs and benefits of different scales are disrupted.
期刊介绍:
Global Environmental Change is a prestigious international journal that publishes articles of high quality, both theoretically and empirically rigorous. The journal aims to contribute to the understanding of global environmental change from the perspectives of human and policy dimensions. Specifically, it considers global environmental change as the result of processes occurring at the local level, but with wide-ranging impacts on various spatial, temporal, and socio-political scales.
In terms of content, the journal seeks articles with a strong social science component. This includes research that examines the societal drivers and consequences of environmental change, as well as social and policy processes that aim to address these challenges. While the journal covers a broad range of topics, including biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate, coasts, food systems, land use and land cover, oceans, urban areas, and water resources, it also welcomes contributions that investigate the drivers, consequences, and management of other areas affected by environmental change.
Overall, Global Environmental Change encourages research that deepens our understanding of the complex interactions between human activities and the environment, with the goal of informing policy and decision-making.