International finance aimed at addressing climate change faces yet another set of challenges in the wake of the Twenty First Conference of Parties (COP 21) held in Paris last year under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Previous market-driven approaches such as emissions trading failed to attract the level of private investment required due to competition from public sector funds, and mixed price signals over the value of carbon. Will the Green Climate Fund and the billions of dollars a year promised by developed countries for climate change adaptation and mitigation repeat the same mistakes of the Kyoto Protocol? And will the mooted 'sustainable development mechanism' (SDM) learn any lessons from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)? Given the hostility of some countries to the use of markets to solve environmental problems, and a preference for environmental payments there is as much uncertainty in climate finance as ever. There have been calls for an increased role of non-state actors in financing global emissions reduction, and a number of innovative financial vehicles such as climate bonds have arisen. But how will international capital avoid a 'global carbon crisis' if climate finance remains fragmented, weak, and poorly governed? In this special issue, you are invited to comment on these and other questions. Practitioners and scholars alike are invited to comment on the successes and failures of climate finance to date, and future prospects, in the lead up to 2020 and the implementation of nationally-determined contributions to keeping global temperature increased within the 1.5-2 degrees centigrade stipulated under the Paris Agreement.
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