Climate Policy Initiative: Global Climate Finance is $97B

Source:  Climate Change Business Journal, November 11, 2011.

Investors—primarily private lenders from rich countries—are providing a total of at least $97 billion per year to finance low-carbon, “climate-resilient” projects and initiatives around the world, according to a recent analysis by the non-profit Climate Policy Initiative of Venice, Italy. Despite this higher-than-expected level of investment, however, CPI said that definitional uncertainties make it difficult to assess whether the international community is living up to its commitment to deploy $100 billion per year by 2020 to help the developing world address climate change. For example, it is not known how much of the $97 billion can be considered “new and additional.”

CPI found that the total amount of private investment is almost three times the amount of public finance.

Intermediaries, including bilateral and multilateral financial institutions, play a key role in distributing climate finance—around 40% of the total—while dedicated climate funds represent a small but growing portion of finance. Currently, upwards of 95% of all climate finance is going towards mitigation as opposed to adaptation, according to CPI.