Climate Finance in International Negotiation

Climate finance is essential to minimize and respond to the increasing impact of climate change. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars are required to adequately reign in average global temperatures and respond to existing climate impacts, international climate finance totals remain relatively small. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the foremost international body working to steer the actions of state actors towards a common cause in the realm of climate finance. Climate finance has been a key part of the fabric of the international climate regime since its inception in the early 1990s. This work sets out to understand how international public climate finance, finance supporting mitigation or adaptation efforts from one state to another, is governed. I argue not only that public international climate finance is governed by the UNFCCC but that it is governing through a goal-setting approach. Beyond establishing the shape of climate finance governance, I ask what key actors do to facilitate and produce this governance, with a focus on the day-to-day practices and meaning-making they engage in. Throughout the dissertation I rely on digital archival work and analysis of documents from 11 different climate finance bodies from 1989-2024 as well as interviews with key actors and hybrid ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2021-2024. I explore the relationship between historical narratives, IO structures, and actor interpretations on issues and concepts like vulnerability, access, and inclusion. I argue that actors (Parties, Civil Society, the UNFCCC COP President, etc.) view themselves as acting within the mandates of treaty language or subsequent decisions while further entrenching the challenge of ensuring adequate climate finance.