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In 1992, international cooperation to address climate change began with the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As part of this new treaty aimed at combatting climate change, the creation of a financial mechanism and a series of principles for transferring finance from north to south were agreed, with the intention of assisting developing countries in meeting their commitments to the treaty. 20 years after the establishment of the UNFCCC, in 2012, a new organisation -the Green Climate Fund - was established to become the central entity through which finance would flow. Reformed principles and a Standing Committee on Finance to oversee the system were further agreed as part of the new financial architecture. These elements represented a significant change within the climate regime and represent notable departures from previous institutional arrangements. This thesis seeks to understand why this occurred, and what precipitated such changes over a two-decade timeframe by asking the core questions – how and why did change occur to the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC. These questions are approached by situating the thesis in the field of institutionalist study, which is often interested in questions of institutional stability and change. Using this approach, the thesis identifies multiple causative pathways and mechanisms that led to change across different phases of the financial mechanism’s evolution. The thesis argues that in contrast to models of punctuated equilibrium, a slow build-up of causative factors was required for transformational change in the financial architecture. Furthermore, the thesis argues both exogenous and endogenous forces were required for change. In accord with a growing literature that combines varieties of institutionalism, theorising these various causes relies on loosening the boundaries of existing theoretical frameworks to allow for a synthesis of ideas. In doing so, the thesis adds to a