If you build it, they will come …if you build it.

Forty members of what’s called the ‘Transitional Committee’ on the formation of the UNFCCC’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) met for the first time today in Mexico city on April 28th.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres opened the official session by reminding the group of their mandate. “The task before you is to propose a design that will make the GCF the window into a new era of vastly greater financing for climate action in the developing world …and to do so in time for approval [at COP17] in Durban.” The GCF could be the home to the US$100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 promised by developed countries to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change - so designing the fund correctly is a big responsibility.

Unfortunately, if time is of the essence (something UNFCCC negotiators seem to fail to understand repeatedly), they didn’t get off to a great start. The first day of talks began hours late - with meetings presumably taking place behind closed doors all morning - and they ended today hours later than scheduled.

Figueres continued with her take on what the fund needs to do. Namely the fund should give developing country governments a trusted avenue to deploy their climate funding to the best effect. It should give a clear and compelling route of engagement for private sector capital to partner with and be leveraged by government funds. And it should swiftly and transparently deploy these much greater amounts of funding so that both the providers of funds and the recipients are encouraged and incentivized to greater action on adaptation and mitigation.

Ernesto Cordero Arroyo of Mexico, Trevor Manuel of S. Africa and Kjell Lund of Norway were elected as chairs of the committee and group then went on to adoption of the agenda. But then they didn’t… or at least I don’t think they did. Somoa intervened, requesting that parties have a chance to give their views on the purpose, principles and scope of the fund before dealing with the more substantive matters of their mandate. Time is of the essence… but the group seemed to think the exercise worthwhile and spent the majority of the rest of their meeting Thursday night sharing their views on the aforementioned.

The committee members seemed to at least broadly agree. Here’s what I learned:

• There are lots of finance mechanisms out there, but they’ve frustrated recipients for decades - especially in terms of access. Developed and developing countries alike seem confident the GCF is an opportunity to address these frustrations.
• The fund’s governance should be transparent, efficient and independent - but it should operate under the authority and guidance of and be fully accountable to the parties of the Conference of Parties.
• There is shared of concern about the effectiveness and impact of these funds. Members want the GCF to to have “transformational” effects on developing country economies - from energy to transportation to land use. It should be demand driven, efficiently deployed, effective, and they want to be able to measure bang for the buck.
• There was a major emphasis on adaptation and how the GCF’s funds should balance support for mitigation and adaptation efforts. There is a lot of emphasis on funds targeting developing countries who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change but have the least resources.
• The scale of efforts we’re undertaking to address climate change is massive (some might call it “transformative”). To deliver, the GCF will need to play a catalytic role, draw on a myriad of sources for funds, and when appropriate, leverage the private sector to further reach and support sustainable investment flows.

While it was good to hear committee members share top-line ideas and even mostly agree on the GCF’s purpose, principles and scope, the hard part is operationalizing all of this - and that’s their job. As they say, the devil is in the details, and while the clock tcks away precious time, I’ve seen little evidence that the real work has yet to begin.