Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology

This document outlines the methodology used by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) to estimate bottom-up climate finance needs by collecting and standardizing data from Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It distinguishes bottom-up needs—finance required by countries to reach national targets—from top-down needs, which are derived from predictive models to align with a 1.5°C pathway.

• CPI distinguishes between top-down climate finance needs, which use predictive models to align with a 1.5°C pathway, and bottom-up needs, which are the requirements stated by countries in official documents like Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Bottom-up needs are generally lower than top-down needs because current NDC commitments are insufficient to align with a net-zero pathway.
• The methodology involves reviewing the latest NDCs from 167 UNFCCC Parties that ratified the Paris Agreement, with a data cutoff date of September 30, 2025. For 63 parties, the most recent submission was an NDC 3.0.
• To ensure comparability, CPI standardizes extracted data by matching it to the Global Landscape of Climate Finance (GLCF) taxonomy, converting all investment needs to 2023 USD billion using inflation rates, and converting cumulative needs into annual averages.
• Finance needs are categorized into three types: unconditional (domestic resources), conditional (international financial support), and unspecified. The methodology excludes finance that has already been secured or allocated, treating it as 'received finance'.
• Data coverage and granularity vary significantly across NDCs. Less than half of the reviewed NDCs provide comprehensive, fully costed climate finance needs. Specifically, 75 NDCs fully costed both mitigation and adaptation, while 53 included no costs.
• The methodology has limitations, including the manual extraction of data from PDF or Word documents, which increases the risk of omissions. Additionally, some NDCs include non-climate finance needs, such as shifts to natural gas, which CPI attempts to exclude where granularity allows.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2025). Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Assessing-Bottom-Up-Climate-Finance.pdf

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology. 2025. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Assessing-Bottom-Up-Climate-Finance.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology |date=November 2025 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Assessing-Bottom-Up-Climate-Finance.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2025assessing, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2025}, month = nov, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Assessing-Bottom-Up-Climate-Finance.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }