Climate Finance

 ©Felix Fallasch / Copyright
©Felix Fallasch / Copyright

Publications

Sub-Saharan Africa is at a pivotal crossroads in its development. Its choice of energy for the future will be decisive in achieving its sustainable development ambitions, including clean and affordable electricity access for all. This report provides an overview of the state of the energy transition in sub-Saharan Africa.  
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires transforming almost all systems, from how we power our economy and build our cities to how we feed a growing population and manage our land. This report provides an overview of how we are collectively doing in addressing the climate crisis.  
This briefing is the second of a two-part Climate Analytics series that examines historical access to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) by Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It focuses on the quality of SIDS proposals submitted to the GCF based on the feedback given to proposals by the independent Technical Advisory Panel (iTAP).  
Meeting climate goals is becoming a matter of fundamental concern for many countries. For the most vulnerable countries, meeting global mitigation targets to limit the increase in global warming to below 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels is a matter of survival - because of their limited financial, technical, technological and human capacity to cope with increasing and more frequent climate-related adverse events. This analysis takes stock of the resources mobilised through funding proposals submitted to and approved by the Green Climate Fund over the period from November 2015 to July 2021 (Board 29). It is based on data published by the GCF.  
Small island developing states are currently faced with two significant challenges that are more onerous due to limited financial resources: adapting to increasing climate change risk and recovering from the pandemic. Debt-for-climate swaps provide an avenue for SIDS to address these challenges.  

Projects

The Governance Initiative for the Caribbean (CGIC) aims to support the development of governance structures to allow equitable and just national climate action to implement the Paris Agreement in Caribbean countries.  
IMPACT is a cross-cutting, multi-faceted project that aims to strengthen the connections between the scientific assessments of climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to help enable access to finance and help Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) implement concrete projects.  

Climate Finance is a key element of supporting ambitious action on climate change. We have been closely following the development of a new institutional architecture for international climate finance in the aftermath of Copenhagen. As part of our negotiation support delivered to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), we support negotiators in the UNFCCC and GCF negotiations with on-demand analysis and technical support on all areas of international climate finance. This enables them to formulate an integrated strategy in the implementation of the international climate finance architecture as part of the negotiations working towards a rapid implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Our expertise also includes the analysis and synthesis of technical information regarding the assessment of sources for long-term finance and comparative analysis of elements and options for the operationalisation of the institutional climate finance architecture.
In order to facilitate efforts to advance the operationalisation of the new climate finance architecture and provide space for informal discussions amongst negotiators and experts, we organise workshops and meetings in cooperation with government agencies, and non-governmental partners.

Cover photo by UNCTAD