CIOLook had the privilege to conduct this exclusive interview in September 2024. The views expressed in this article are author’s own.
Climate finance is essential in tackling the growing challenges of climate change, providing the necessary funding to support mitigation and
adaptation strategies worldwide. With the rising threats of climate change, climate finance has evolved into a key component of international policy, focusing on investments that support sustainable development in vulnerable regions. As the global community continues to advance its climate commitments, there is an increasing demand for transparency, accountability, and innovation in how funds are distributed and utilized to create substantial, lasting impacts.
Yeonji Kim, Evaluation Uptake Specialist at GCF independent evaluation unit, has been a driving force in the international climate finance sector. Her leadership is marked by her ability to bridge the gap between policy and practice, ensuring that critical lessons from climate finance projects are shared and applied effectively. Known for her strategic thinking and passion for sustainable development, Yeonji has focused on cultivating better communication and dissemination of knowledge, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions. Her leading approach encourages creativity, collaboration, and accountability, making her a significant figure in climate finance.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF), where Yeonji currently works, is the largest dedicated climate fund tasked with supporting developing countries in their climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. By ensuring transparency and efficiency in its operations, the GCF plays a key role in advancing international climate goals. Through its commitment to funding impactful projects, the GCF has become a cornerstone in the global fight against climate change.
Let’s explore Yeonji’s journey in advancing climate finance:
Strategic Move into Climate Finance
Before her first official United Nations career, Yeonji’s focus was not specifically on climate nor on climate policy or governance. However, having passed the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) exam in 2015 and thereby earning a ticket to work at any UN organization of her choice, she decided to get into international climate policy and governance. Typically, UN offices or organizations facing personnel shortages but lacking the resources to fund additional staff request Junior Professional Officers (JPOs).
The governments of the JPOs cover the UN-level salary for a duration of two to three years, depending on the agreement between the respective country (such as South Korea) and the UN. For South Korea, the duration for its JPOs is set at two years.
Yeonji’s choice was to work at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, based in Bonn, Germany. The Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) and its Conference of the Parties (COP), as the supreme decision-making body of the Convention, are at the center of the international climate governance architecture and policy-making processes.
Naturally, UNFCCC seemed the right place for her as she wanted to gain more specialized knowledge and technical skills in climate change, which she knew would only get bigger and more important in the years ahead.
Of the many divisions of the UNFCCC Secretariat, she worked at the Climate Finance, Technology, and Capacity- Building Programme, also known as the ‘Means of Implementation’ Department. This means that climate finance, climate technology, and capacity-building are the three crucial means to implement the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) as well as the more advanced 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Here is an article that she wrote on climate finance, published by the Korea Times: Climate finance takes center stage at COP27 | Independent Evaluation Unit | Green Climate Fund
She made a strategic decision to get into international climate policy, particularly climate finance, and decided her career destinations accordingly—this was around 2015/2016. She came with a solid academic background in policy, thanks to the very rigorous and hands-on coursework at Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, where she earned her Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) degree.
Prior to her MPP coursework, she was privileged to earn her Bachelor’s degree in International Development from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), which laid a solid ground for her to further build her theoretical and practical knowledge, skills, and an exciting career in the international development and climate change/investment space.
During her time at the UNFCCC Secretariat as a climate finance and capacity-building officer from 2016 to 2019, she had notable wins and milestones, having enabled and supported the Parties to the Convention (more than 190 countries in number!) to reach consensus on crucial climate finance and capacity-building-related matters through very complex intergovernmental negotiations based on a delicate set of draft rules of procedure. These intergovernmental negotiations on climate change are now among the largest international meetings in the world. For instance, UNFCCC COP28, held in Dubai last year, was attended by around 85,000 people, according to data sources. According to the UNFCCC Secretariat these negotiations have become increasingly complex with an ever-increasing number of participants that include officials from governments all over the world and huge numbers of representatives from civil society and the global news media. You can read more about these negotiations here: What are United Nations Climate Change Conferences? | CCNUCC (unfccc.int)
The UNFCCC COP and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) agenda items that she directly provided lead support for include long-term climate finance, COP guidance to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), COP guidance to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), progress made on the implementation of the UNFCCC capacity- building framework, and matters relating to the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF), and matters relating to capacity-building under the Convention. Here, the GEF and the GCF are the operating entities of the Financial Mechanism of the Convention, and the COP provides guidance on various operational, policy, and programming matters of these two entities.
The COP guidance, in the form of a new decision by the COP, adopted at the end of the COP session, held either in November or December of each year, then feeds into and informs the GCF governance and policy-making processes by the GCF Board.
After having a very fulfilling career at the UNFCCC Secretariat and having supported the ultimate multilateral climate negotiations process for several years, she then made a career transition by joining the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in March 2020.
In particular, she joined the Independent Evaluation Unit (IEU) of the GCF, which is operationally independent of the GCF Secretariat Divisions, to ensure the learning and accountability function of the Fund. The IEU, in short, ensures that the GCF is accountable, effective, and transparent as the world’s largest dedicated multilateral climate fund serves the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.
In her capacity as the Evaluation Uptake Specialist, at the IEU, she not only conducts and contributes to independent evaluations of GCF’s portfolio, policies, projects and programs but also leads the process of developing and implementing strategies for better communication, dissemination, and uptake of the findings and lessons learned from the evaluations.
Her work is very interesting because she gets to conduct corporate and program evaluations to learn about what is working well and what has not worked as well with GCF investments, and it goes beyond only conducting evaluations.
She gets to devise and experiment with new ways and methods to effectively communicate the evidence to key GCF stakeholders, including the Board, Secretariat, GCF accredited and implementing entities, civil society and private sector observer organizations, the global evaluations and research networks, and other UN agencies and MDBs. She loves the fact that, together with her team members, she can be more creative and innovative. In doing this work, her prior TV broadcasting career and experience in journalism also come in very handy and create an ‘enabling environment’ to do her job well.
After completing her Master’s studies in the States, she returned to her home country—South Korea—and started working as a TV news reporter for Korea’s 24-hour global TV broadcasting network. In her mind, she has always had multiple career goals and aspirations, including working as a newscaster and going into policy, and she knew she would get to work in policy at some point in her life.
Promoting Uptake of Climate Finance Lessons
In her current role as Evaluation Uptake Specialist at the Independent Evaluation Unit of the Green Climate Fund, she creates, curates, frames, and packages content and lessons learned about the relevance and effectiveness of international (public) climate finance to ensure a wider and better uptake of knowledge and lessons learned.
Supporting Team Growth and Achievement
Yeonji’s leadership style at work: She has focused on doing more herself as a leader, supporting her team members to remove any bottlenecks they run into, and actively acknowledging their work and contributions and giving credit.
Recently, she has learned that it’s even better for her individual team members’ growth and empowerment to let them think of possible solutions (instead of her giving them the answers and trying to bear the ‘burden’ alone as the leader) and enable them to work more independently. She has been trying to do that more. What hasn’t changed is that she cares about her team members and their growth, happiness, and achievement.
Here is an article Yeonji wrote about the qualities of an effective leader who mentors and empowers team members. The blog also speaks about the qualities of a great work environment in which team members are encouraged to ask questions and share their thoughts and ideas without fear.
Vertical and horizontal work cultures: A first-hand account | Independent Evaluation Unit | Green Climate Fund
Ensuring Effective and Accountable Investments
Currently, as she is working to ensure GCF investments and funded activities are effective and accountable, it gives her great pleasure and satisfaction when she witnesses the impact and result of their effort in developing countries, particularly vulnerable countries such as the small island developing States (SIDS) and the least developed countries (LDCs).
Especially when she gets to hear from the beneficiaries and people of the communities how GCF support (international climate finance) has brought a positive (or unintended negative) change and empowered them for greater climate action and climate resilience and see firsthand such impact in their local environment and context. She finds her work particularly meaningful and interesting when she gets to hear from the beneficiaries and people of the communities how the GCF support (international climate finance) has brought a positive (or unintended negative) change and empowered them for greater climate action and climate resilience in their local environment and context.
After seeing the result and impact firsthand in such a localized context, she finds it very rewarding to bring home such stories of results and lessons learned to her day-to-day work context and life—and to share those insights with her colleagues in Songdo (where GCF is headquartered) and other key stakeholders within the GCF/UNFCCC ecosystem and with fellow climate professionals in the international space.
You can read about her reflections and learnings from the field in these blogs that she wrote.
Empowering women through climate adaptation: What are the next steps? | Independent Evaluation Unit | Green Climate Fund
“One printed brief can go a long way. Here is how.” | Independent Evaluation Unit | Green Climate Fund
Communicating Opportunity and Driving Action
According to Yeonji, a leader with empathy, passion, technical skills, and an ability to communicate hope is not afraid to go beyond the ‘business as usual’ even within the climate space. As in other areas and sectors, she believes there are many ‘business as usual’ cases even within the international climate landscape. The ‘business as usual’ trend and the industries’ and our unwillingness to break from the BAU in this state of emergency quickly enough have aggravated the climate emergency today.
Therefore, an effective leader is someone who can continuously challenge that BAU tendency and is not afraid to find better and more effective ways while encouraging others (governments, sectors, and people) to stay focused on overcoming this state of emergency for people and planetary health and wellbeing.
Such a leader will have a strong belief that we can indeed make a difference and effectively address the greatest challenge that humanity faces in the 21st century, and an ability to effectively call stakeholders, countries, and the private sector to action—with great storytelling, data, and narrative framing skills. The leader should also have an extraordinary ability to execute and implement innovative and effective solutions.
Here is an article Yeonji wrote about the qualities of an effective leader.
Vertical and horizontal work cultures: A first-hand account | Independent Evaluation Unit | Green Climate Fund
Balancing Career Demands and Personal Well-being
There was a time when Yeonji suddenly tasted blood in her mouth while working as part of the UNFCCC Secretariat team at COP24 held in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018 due to severe inflammation and mouth ulcers. Fatigue and exhaustion from the very demanding and lengthy COP multilateral processes are very common.
During her time at UNFCCC, COP24 was the longest- running COP, lasting nearly 16 to 17 days straight instead of the usual 14 days. At that time, while living in Bonn, Germany, she tried balancing the challenges of a very demanding career by engaging in small activities that helped her mind off such high degrees of stress.
These activities included doing Pilates, going for walks, hanging out with a small group of friends, and organizing a Bible study group with them. Another tip she found useful was to keep her mind at ease no matter how challenging the COP negotiations became, knowing that the process would not fail and that Parties would not go back home unless they reached a meaningful conclusion and agreement about a way forward. This has put her mind at ease, and she was able to enjoy the often lengthy and complex negotiation process.
Staying Updated with Climate Networks
Yeonji subscribes to various climate professionals’ networks on LinkedIn and tries to catch up on the latest developments regularly by following the news. She also actively utilizes opportunities such as webinars and participation in global conferences to exchange information and learn the latest from other colleagues and professionals.
Accelerating Consensus in Climate Negotiations
She observes that due to the increased urgency and the wider recognition that no time can be lost, the Parties to the Convention/countries seem to have found a way to reach a consensus faster than before. They are more willing to come to an agreement at a faster pace than previously.
It was remarkable to see the countries agreeing to create a loss and damage fund on Day 1 of UNFCCC COP28 in Dubai, for instance. Additionally, they agreed to move towards using fewer fossil fuels, which is also remarkable. She hopes that the Parties (countries) will not lose sight of what is truly important—ensuring the health, well-being, and resilience of people and the planet in the face of the changing and already changed climate—and continue to accelerate climate action and investments.
Developing Climate Policy and Governance Skills
According to Yeonji, closely monitoring and observing the UNFCCC COP negotiations and relevant entity governance processes, such as GCF Board meetings, which get live- streamed, could be very helpful for those who wish to pursue a career in international climate policy. It is also important to focus on developing skills that are relevant to the areas within the climate space that one wishes to pursue.
For instance, if interested in climate policy and governance, it is beneficial to develop skills in negotiations, environmental law, international relations, and policy. Additionally, enhancing physical and psychological strength and endurance is crucial for those who want to support the COP negotiations directly.
For those interested in climate evaluation and accountability, developing skills in monitoring and evaluation, quantitative data modeling and analysis, qualitative methods, and MRV (measurement, reporting, and verification) will be helpful.
Connecting Climate Finance with Sector-Level Actions
Yeonji aims to further develop her skills and leadership in the climate space by building on her key strengths and forte. She will also hone her skills in evaluation, lead climate program evaluations, and handle all aspects of the evaluation cycle, with the aim to inform the GCF/UNFCCC stakeholders, world leaders, and decision-makers on the effectiveness and results of climate finance and investments.
She has a personal desire and goal to bring very technical knowledge and expertise to the larger public and society by finding a way to make the content and language more relevant to the industries/sectors, as well as academia, the public, and the media.
She believes that all hands are needed on deck to address the climate crisis, and it cannot be left to just the governments or the industries—individuals and households also have an important role to play. She acknowledges the need to do better as an individual to resist her business-as- usual tendency (resisting the tendency to continue to use lots of unnecessary plastic bags and products and the tendency to continue with the usual, unsustainable consumption of goods, for instance).
In this regard, she is in the process of writing a book (tentatively titled ‘The Age of Climanomics,’ which is climate + economics) that frames and understands climate change as a major economic issue rather than an environmental issue only to better organize and elicit support from people and industries.
Especially in the South Korean context, she concluded that society continues to treat climate change as a simple ‘environmental issue,’ which does not trigger focused investments and active involvement from all sectors and the public. By writing the book, she also hopes to better connect the international climate finance architecture and policy with the country-level and industry/sector-level actions, solutions, and ways forward. She believes such an effort can help enable private sector entities, financial institutions, and households to think actively about and contribute to implementing the Paris Agreement article 2.1. (c) – which says we are to “make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.” We all have a role to play to turn this crisis into an opportunity – an opportunity to achieve and deepen a new development paradigm.
Yeonji Kim – Blog
