Eight steps to a better understanding of climate finance flows in your city or country

This guide by the Climate Policy Initiative outlines an eight-step methodology for countries, cities, and organizations to map climate finance flows. The process is designed to establish investment baselines, reveal interactions between public and private finance, and identify opportunities to redirect funding toward low-carbon and climate-resilient activities.

• Mapping climate finance flows provides several strategic benefits for countries, regions, and cities, including the establishment of baselines to identify system blockages, the analysis of interactions between public and private investment to shift funding away from business-as-usual, and the identification of opportunities for policymakers to create more effective policies.
• The Climate Policy Initiative recommends an eight-step approach to mapping climate finance: 1) defining the activities to be measured; 2) setting the geographical scale; 3) tracking both public and private finance where possible; 4) tracking total investments rather than just additional costs; 5) focusing on project-level primary financing; 6) tracking public framework expenditures; 7) excluding public revenue supports like feed-in tariffs to avoid double counting; and 8) excluding private R&D investments to avoid double counting.
• Project-level primary financing is identified as the most effective indicator of climate action progress, as aggregate data lacks depth and secondary market transactions, such as refinancing or selling stocks, do not necessarily represent new efforts to increase resilience or reduce emissions.
• Due to fragmented data in the land use sector, the Climate Policy Initiative is collaborating with Climate Focus and the European Forestry Institute to develop mapping tools that help policymakers identify fiscal and financial mechanisms to attract new investors for sustainable land use.

APA

Staff, C. (2015). Eight steps to a better understanding of climate finance flows in your city or country. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/eight-steps-to-a-better-understanding-of-climate-finance-flows-in-your-city-or-country/

Chicago

Staff, CPI. Eight steps to a better understanding of climate finance flows in your city or country. Climate Policy Initiative, 2015. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/eight-steps-to-a-better-understanding-of-climate-finance-flows-in-your-city-or-country/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Staff |first1=CPI |title=Eight steps to a better understanding of climate finance flows in your city or country |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=21 May 2015 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/eight-steps-to-a-better-understanding-of-climate-finance-flows-in-your-city-or-country/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{staff2015eight, author = {Staff, CPI}, title = {{Eight steps to a better understanding of climate finance flows in your city or country}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2015}, month = may, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/eight-steps-to-a-better-understanding-of-climate-finance-flows-in-your-city-or-country/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }