Climate finance: key concepts and ways forward

Climate finance is fundamental to curbing anthropogenic climate change. Compared, however, to the negotiations over emissions reduction timetables, commitments, and architectures, climate finance issues have received only limited and belated attention. Assuring delivery and appropriate use of the financial resources needed to achieve emissions reductions and secure adaptation to climate change, particularly in developing countries, is as vital as agreement on emission caps. This paper suggests the adoption of a Global Finance Registry.

Key points include:

• robust monitoring, reporting, and verification arrangements are needed to determine the relationships between the support provided and the level of reductions expected and achieved
• the levels of private investment and the associated mitigation achieved are influenced by regulatory agreements, and the leveraging arrangements will introduce more complexities and uncertainties to the equation
• arbitrage, institutional failure and corruption shall be considered and anticipated and resolved to reinforce the credibility of private finance commitments.

A Global Climate Finance Registry of funding commitments and actions may help to recognise and track the different undertakings and programmes. Such a registry should be developed and operated by an international body with the participation of all nations. It shall also develop and apply methodologies for determining the comparability of different forms of financing. The funds would be disbursed however, by the international and domestic authorities and not by this registry.