simon zadek

My second day no longer working for AccountAbility.  Bags packed, off to Geneva airport and to Copenhagen.  Today the piece I have lead authored with Maya and Fernanda and Joao on the Amazon Fund entitled Radical Simplicity in Designing National Climate Institutions Lessons from the Amazon Fund will be released. It provides a serious look at how autonomous public interest organisations, grounded in a collaborative approach, could work in moving us towards ambitious early action that does not get caught up at the international level. The Amazon Fund, although very young, provides the seeds for us to learn how to do this right and quickly.

Also today is released a second piece through Project Catalyst entitled ‘Institutional Design Proposal for Fast Start Funding’. We do need a fast start fund, irrespective of whether it is seen or indeed is a side show to the main financial negotiations. We need to get going quickly and ambitiously. The challenge is not just getting the money, but making it work. This second paper sets out how this might be done, focusing on direct financing, low hurdles, and bilateral agreements framed by common principles, a registry for posting actions and investments and a focus on learning rather than detailed ex-ante assessment.