This paper argues that new, more automatic fundraising approaches promise to be more effective than the traditional approach in raising adequate and predictable resources to help developing countries respond to global environmental challenges. The traditional approach depends on securing allocations in national budgets and on the outcome of periodic burden-sharing negotiations among countries. But both national and international-level efforts are impeded by structural factors, particularly institutional and political constraints that favor cost-avoidance rather than problem-solving, and work against increasing international financial transfers for global environmental protection.
