The Green Climate Fund (GCF)—with a mandate to accelerate climate action in developing countries—has great potential to support transformational investments in developing countries to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement. It is therefore crucial that the GCF succeeds in its mission.

However, the GCF is currently facing a crisis of confidence, illustrated most recently by the unproductive GCF Board meeting in July 2018 and the departure of its Executive Director. The level of trust in the GCF and its Board among developed and developing counties, civil society, accredited entities, and the private sector is at an all-time low.

The authors believe that restoring confidence in the GCF demands renewed international commitment to strengthen the GCF and enable it to succeed. We acknowledge that there are many other policy issues that are important, but based on extensive discussions with stakeholders, we came to two sets of issues that are fundamental to restoring confidence in the GCF and should be addressed simultaneously: resources and governance. This paper analyzes these key challenges and suggests several ways forward. We believe that our working paper will contribute to the debate on how to to restore confidence in the GCF.