Conducting Research in Climate Finance in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities of Using Grounded Theory Methodology Approach

Grounded theory is a powerful method to comprehend processes and experiments based on the logical relation to a problem that require collective actions. In most of the cases, the intent is to propose solutions to real-world problems based in a pragmatic and meaningful way. Although grounded theory is well-discussed method in social sciences, in the field of climate change, it is poorly used. The aim of this paper is to provide a description on the practical process of doing research in the climate finance field using the grounded theory approach. The article presents methodological not substantive results of a research focused on the governance process of REDD+, a performance-based climate finance mechanism to incentive developing countries to reduce forest-related emissions. Academics, both scholars and students, can be benefited with the results presented in this paper—a systematized process to use grounded theory method to understand a complex real-world problem which can be a useful step-by-step methodological approach for theory building in applied sciences in other policy domains and flexible systems management.