Money Talks: Understanding Climate Finance Discourses in the UNFCCC

• In Event: Collaborative and Polycentric Governance

Abstract

In this paper I explore the roles of different political discourses in climate finance bodies with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). I focus specifically on the ad hoc work program on the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG). This is the UNFCCC’s first deliberative goal setting process on climate finance. The NCQG will meet from 2022-2024 and the new goal will be launched in 2025. In this paper I present findings on how various political discourses influence the NCQG process, deliberations, and subsequent UNFCCC treaty negotiations. In doing this I present data from discourse analysis of 8 NCQG meetings from 2022-2023, interviews with NCQG participants, and an ongoing hybrid ethnography of UNFCCC climate finance bodies, including NCQG meetings. I illustrate how different discourses influence the NCQG and assess what this might mean for the new climate finance goal. This research provides insight into goal setting, international organizations, climate finance and environmental governance.

Author

• Diana K Elhard, Northwestern University