Green Climate Fund increasing debt burden on Bangladesh: TIB

 
The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Tuesday said the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is increasing a debt burden on vulnerable countries, including Bangladesh, with its profit-oriented approach by providing more loans than grants.

TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman came up with the remarks at a press conference at TIB's Dhaka office marking the release of the research -"Accessing Green Climate Fund (GCF) for Vulnerable Countries like Bangladesh: Governance Challenges and Way Forward''. The research is both qualitative and quantitative, and its timeline is January 2023 to May 2024.

Iftekharuzzaman said, "The GCF has failed to finance countries affected by climate change. We cannot remain silent when the transparency and ethics of this organisation are violated." He also said the affected countries are not getting the benefits that they are supposed to get.

"From the beginning, GCF has imposed such conditions that it nearly banned the developing countries from accessing funds. As a result, the countries who were supposed to receive grants, didn't receive adequate amount as expected. Besides, GCF is not abiding by the principles to release funds and does not transfer them in due time," he said. He said that the country ownership policies are being ignored. Besides, the policies are vague, he said. He added that UNDP's accreditation was renewed despite corruption allegations, which means the mandate for zero-tolerance against corruption has been flouted to support corruption by the GCF. TIB research has found that Green Climate Fund (GCF) prioritizes international organizations over the climate vulnerable countries in granting funds, which is in contradiction to GCF's own core principles.

It has also failed to collect funds from the developed countries and burdened the climate vulnerable countries with loans instead of giving grants. This shows its failure in the last 12 years in fulfilling its core mandate.