Three Tools to Unlock Finance for Land Use Mitigation and Adaptation

This research paper by the Climate Policy Initiative describes three analytical tools designed to help low and middle-income countries and their partners redirect land-use finance toward climate mitigation and adaptation. The tools aim to address the gap between the hundreds of billions spent on business-as-usual land use and the relatively small amount of finance currently dedicated to green activities.

• Land use sectors contribute approximately 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions and are highly vulnerable to climate change, yet current financial flows for mitigation and adaptation are small, estimated between USD 1.3 billion and 51.8 billion.
• While total financial flows to forestry and agriculture in developing countries reach hundreds of billions of dollars, these are primarily 'business-as-usual' (BAU) investments that do not support climate adaptation or mitigation and may actually increase climate vulnerability or emissions.
• The 'Landscape of Land Use Finance' tool uses Sankey diagrams to map public and private financial flows to green and BAU activities, helping governments identify gaps, blockages, and channels to inform multi-sectoral strategies like REDD+ programs.
• The 'Financial Viability-Gap Analysis' tool identifies why green activities may be more expensive than BAU ones or face higher risks, suggesting public interventions to reduce costs (e.g., tax breaks, low cost loans), increase revenues (e.g., price floors), or improve the enabling environment (e.g., regulatory standards).
• The 'Public Finance Mapping' tool allows governments to track public financial instruments to ensure coherence across sectors and jurisdictions, identifying whether these instruments support green production or BAU activities and finding entry points for donor finance.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2015). Three Tools to Unlock Finance for Land Use Mitigation and Adaptation. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/three-tools-to-unlock-finance-for-land-use-mitigation-and-adaptation/

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Three Tools to Unlock Finance for Land Use Mitigation and Adaptation. 2015. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/three-tools-to-unlock-finance-for-land-use-mitigation-and-adaptation/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Three Tools to Unlock Finance for Land Use Mitigation and Adaptation |date=13 July 2015 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/three-tools-to-unlock-finance-for-land-use-mitigation-and-adaptation/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2015three, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Three Tools to Unlock Finance for Land Use Mitigation and Adaptation}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2015}, month = jul, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/three-tools-to-unlock-finance-for-land-use-mitigation-and-adaptation/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }