'Governing Access'

16 The reasons for GEF underspend (explored in Chapter five) include the complexity of funding requirements and the snail's pace of processes through which project proposals were agreed to be politically and technically acceptable.

17 In 2001 an IMF representative stated that the IMF was not subject to international human rights law (Bretton Woods Update, Oct/Nov 2001), see Chapter two.

18 Governments become 'Party' to a Convention when they have formally ratified it domestically.

Simplifying Tools

To partially disguise this fact and minimise the political complexity of having divergent values, goals and cultures represented within the GEF Council, GEF work has officially been as far as possible ‘technical’ and ‘business-like’ (interview, Southern Council member, 1999). It uses monetary values to measure all costs and benefits, with ‘benefit to the global climate’ for example assessed as the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Though ostensibly technical, this is hardly the most scientific way to deal with the complexities of a global climate system affected by at least six different ‘greenhouse gases’ each released in multiple and disparate situations, let alone the complicating factors of particulate matter released in vehicle exhausts and unpredictable feedback mechanisms.