Mobilizing Climate Finance Flows

If the Agreement’s goal - limit the global temperature increase below 2°C - is to be met, all financial flows need to shift dramatically and rapidly from current investment patterns to 2°C compatible pathways. This study analyses the roles Nordic actors might play in mobilizing finance flows internationally and outlines a roadmap that can guide joint Nordic action during the next five to ten years. While the roadmap covers components of “climate related ODA” and climate compatible contributions from the private sector, the focus of the roadmap lies on the crucial bridging and dialogue that is required between key actors. Building on identified Nordic strengths and areas needing accelerated international support, the report concludes with a set of immediate next steps to operationalize the roadmap in 2017-2018.

Global investment to achieve the Paris Agreement’s temperature and adaptation goals requires immediate actions—first and foremost—on climate policies. Policies should be accompanied by commensurate financing flows to close the large financing gap globally, and in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) in particular. This note discusses potential ways to mobilize domestic and foreign private sector capital in climate finance, as a complement to climate-related policies, by mitigating relevant risks and constraints through public-private partnerships involving multilateral, regional, and national development banks. It also overviews the role the IMF can play in the process.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, Treaty Number: 102-38, 1992), the Copenhagen Accord (2009), and the UNFCCC Cancun Agreements (2010), wherein the higher-income countries pledged jointly up to $30 billion of "fast start" climate financing for lower-income countries for the period 2010-2012, and a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020. The Cancun Agreements also proposed that the pledged funds are to be new, additional to previous flows, adequate, predictable, and sustained, and are to come from a wide variety of sources, both public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources of finance.

In spite of the climate finance commitment by the developed countries to mobilise jointly 100 billion USD per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries from a wide variety of sources, there is no clear agreement on the types of funds that might count as mobilised by developed countries and what private finance flows could be considered as mobilised for climate action in developing countries. This study identifies ten considerations that are key to estimating mobilised private climate finance. An example methodology is proposed for tracking mobilised private investment and the methodology is tested on three Nordic case studies. Through the further refinement of methodologies, it should be possible to develop common systems for M&E of finance enabling a clearer understanding of the finance landscape and the effectiveness of interventions for mobilising private investment.

In 2009 developed countries committed to jointly mobilise USD 100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 for climate action in developing countries.

This report explores evidence-based action areas to increase and accelerate the mobilisation of private finance for climate action in developing countries, and the role of international public finance providers in doing so.

This paper discusses the implications of climate change for fiscal, financial, and macroeconomic policies. Most pressing is the use of carbon taxes (or equivalent trading systems) to implement the emissions mitigation pledges submitted by 186 countries for the December 2015 Paris Agreement while providing revenue for lowering other taxes or debt. Carbon pricing in developing countries would effectively mobilize climate finance, and carbon price floor arrangements are a promising way to coordinate policies internationally. Targeted fiscal measures that are tailored to national circumstances and robust across climate scenarios are needed to counter private sector under-investment in climate adaptation. And increased disclosure of carbon footprints, stress testing of asset values, and greater proliferation of hedging instruments, will facilitate low-emission investments and climate risk diversification through financial markets.

Significant investments are needed to support the global transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient future. Current finance flows fall short of global financing needs, and massive scaling up is needed to unlock additional financial resources and foster a sustainable investment pathway. Overcoming barriers to private sector investments is critical, and international climate finance can play a catalytic role in this regard. National development banks (NDBs) have a unique role in this context, both complementing and catalyzing private sector players. This publication discusses the unique role that NDBs could play in scaling up private financing for climate change mitigation projects through the intermediation of international and national public climate finance in their respective local credit markets and the conditions that would be needed for them to be most effective. It draws from experiences in international climate finance and best practices, processes, and products of NDBs within the Latin American and Caribbean region.