The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board is in the process of considering additional modalities that further
enhance direct access, including through funding entities with a view to enhancing country ownership of projects and programmes.1 The term ‘enhancing’ in this context refers to a devolution by the Board of certain operational
funding decisions to outside agencies: ‘(accredited) funding entities’.2 This type of devolved/decentralized access modality has been proposed as an alternative to the more traditional model where detailed project approval is carried out at the multilateral level (e.g. by the Global Environment Facility Council/ Secretariat, or the Adaptation Fund Board). It has been argued that this sort of decentralized/ devolved model is key to the GCF being able to operate at scale,3 but it is also clear that it could give rise to a fundamental tension in the partnership between the GCF and these accredited funding entities, in that they each may well have different objectives, say with regards to national development and global climate change benefits.