Climate Finance: The Challenge of ‘Shifting the Trillions’

[The money used to tackle climate change — “climate finance” — comes in many guises, which means that measuring it is a mammoth and complex task.

Yet many argue that “mobilizing” finance is the key to unlocking action on climate change across the world. Renewable energy infrastructure, energy efficiency and adaptation projects require investment.  Without it, some nations say they either can’t or won’t build them.  It is also a vital tool for unlocking political will and trust, as the UN negotiations [that took] place in Marrakech demonstrate.

Money is already flowing between various countries, from an assortment of sources to numerous causes.  How this happens can be less than transparent — but there has recently been a rash of reports on climate finance that attempt to lay out the current state of play.

Last week, the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) launched its 2016 Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows.  It is based heavily on the work of the Climate Policy Initiative‘s (CPI) Global Landscape of Climate Finance report, which was recently updated.

A group of developed nations, led by the UK and Australia, have also provided a “roadmap” for how they intend to meet their promise to provide $100bn a year in climate finance by 2020, although their approach has been criticized by Oxfam.

Carbon Brief has five takeaways from these reports, which, together, give an overview of the current state of climate finance.

• ‘Climate finance’ means different things to different people
• $100bn target is difficult, but not impossible
• Climate finance is increasing
• Adaptation is still losing out to mitigation
• Private and domestic investments dominate

Read more at Climate Finance:  The Challenge of ‘Shifting the Trillions’