The fifth ecbi Finance Circle took place on Monday 11 November in the offices of the EU Presidency at the Moon Palace conference centre with 20 participants from 14 delegations (Australia, Belgium/EU Presidency, Canada, Ecuador, European Commission, Georgia, Germany, Netherlands, Mexico, Slovenia, Sweden, UAE, UK, and US). The discussion focused on the idea of a Transitional Expert Panel put forward in an ecbi Policy Brief [1], and in a draft article on How to establish the new climate fund [2]. The discussion was, as is usual for FC meetings, very open and collegiate.

Following the request of Mexican and US participants, a follow-up meeting of the FC was held at the beginning of the second week with 20 participants from 17 delegations (Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, EC, Ecuador, Egypt, Georgia, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Pakistan, Spain, UK, and US). Among the issues that were discussed in that meeting were the ideas of having the UNFCCC Executive Secretary convene the design process for the new fund, and of having relevant agencies second staff to the UNFCCC Secretariat to support that process, both of which ultimately reflected in the text of the Cancún Agreements (LCA, para. 110 and para. 111, respectively).