ABSTRACT
The green climate fund (GCF) was mandated to catalyse finance for mitigation projects under various existing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change programmes and to attract investments from the private sector via a ‘private sector facility’. This chapter explores the processes by which the activities of civil society organisations (CSOs) influenced the design and development of the GCF. It argues that two meta-discourses were prevalent within the GCF design process, namely green governmentality and ecological modernisation. Research on civil society largely revolves around the ability of CSOs to improve the lives of ‘the poor’ and the capacity and legitimacy of CSOs to act as representatives for those without a voice in international policy processes. Governing the climate in the form of a global carbon budget is part of the green governmentality, which uses various calculative technologies and devices.
