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

The Climate Policy Initiative outlines a framework for mapping climate finance flows to establish investment baselines, reveal interactions between public and private finance, and identify opportunities for policy improvement. The guide emphasizes tracking project-level primary financing and total investments over additional costs, while cautioning against double-counting by excluding revenue supports like feed-in tariffs and private R&D. The author notes that data gaps, particularly in the land use sector, remain a challenge, leading to a collaboration with the European Forestry Institute and Climate Focus to develop specific mapping tools for that sector.

• Mapping climate finance flows allows entities to establish a baseline to measure progress, identify system blockages, and understand the interaction between public finance and private investment to redirect funds from "business-as-usual to low-carbon and climate-resilient investments".
• The guide recommends focusing on project-level primary financing—defined as finance for activities and projects on the ground—because aggregate data and secondary market transactions (such as refinancing or selling stocks) do not provide the same insights into actual emissions reductions or resilience increases.
• To avoid double-counting, the methodology specifies the exclusion of private investments in research and development and public revenue supports, such as carbon credit revenues and feed-in tariffs, as these are repayments of investments already counted.
• The author highlights significant data gaps and inconsistencies in the land use sector, prompting a partnership with Climate Focus and the European Forestry Institute to create tools that help policymakers identify fiscal and financial mechanisms to attract new investors.

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} }