Introduction
Climate finance and the commitments around it are important topics when discussing the current environmental crisis. Climate finance often generates a series of discussions and questions that can sometimes seem endless, complicated, and non-transparent. In the global financial architecture, there are specialized financing mechanisms. One such financial mechanism is the Green Climate Fund (GCF)[1].
The Green Climate Fund held its first Board meeting (B.01) in August 2012 and approved its first funding proposal three years later in November 2015, during the 11th Board meeting (B.11). This first funding proposal has a significant importance for Indigenous Peoples, as it established action in the Datem area of Peru, in Indigenous Peoples' territories and above all raised a series of questions related to the respect and recognition of the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples and especially the importance of conducting processes that integrate free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in all climate actions to be carried out on indigenous lands and territories, as well as the importance of follow-up and monitoring of the Fund's actions.
This first GCF project set the tone for recognizing the importance of monitoring climate finance from the position of Indigenous Peoples as there is a lack of data that can tell us how many climate action projects are implemented on Indigenous lands and territories –more importantly, how these climate actions will impact Indigenous Peoples and how data obtained from climate finance monitoring are integrated into the said actions.
In February 2018, the GCF approved the Indigenous Peoples Policy during its 19th Board Meeting. This policy was the response to the constant concerns of Indigenous Peoples to avoid any negative impacts on activities that are financed by the Fund and that supports the rights of Indigenous Peoples and defines compensation for any unavoidable harm that Indigenous Peoples might suffer. Another objective of the policy was to ensure that Peoples are fully and effectively involved in consultations at all levels when developing Indigenous Peoples' policies, projects and programs, allowing them to benefit from GCF activities and projects in a "culturally appropriate manner"[2].
There are many important elements to know if these actions are having a "do-good" rather than a "do-no-harm" effect, and that is why monitoring the actions of the Green Climate Fund, but especially the actions taking place on our lands and territories as Indigenous Peoples, is so important.
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[1] Green Climate Fund (GCF), which was defined during COP 16 in Cancun, the parties established the GCF as the operating entity of the financial mechanism of the Convention. And developing countries committed to mobilize US$100 billion from 2020 onwards.
[2] An Indigenous Peoples toolkit on the green climate fund indigenous peoples´ policy (2020) Tebtebba Foundation ver en: https://www.tebtebba.org/index.php/component/fileman/?view=file&routed=1&name=IP%20Toolkit%20on%20GCF%20and%20the%20IP%20Policy%20%28English%29.pdf&container=fileman-attachments