Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology

The report details a systematic approach to quantifying 'bottom-up' climate finance needs—the capital countries state they require to meet national targets—as opposed to 'top-down' predictive models. CPI reviewed 168 NDCs, standardizing diverse data on currency, timeframes, and sector classifications using its Global Landscape of Climate Finance (GLCF) taxonomy. The methodology distinguishes between unconditional (domestic) and conditional (international) needs, while acknowledging significant data gaps, as less than half of the reviewed NDCs provided fully costed finance needs.

• CPI distinguishes between 'top-down' needs, which use predictive models to align with a 1.5°C pathway, and 'bottom-up' needs, which are the specific financial requirements stated by countries in official documents like NDCs to reach national targets.
• Bottom-up finance needs are materially lower than top-down estimates because the cumulative commitments in current NDCs are insufficient to align with a net-zero pathway.
• The methodology involves reviewing 168 NDCs from UNFCCC Parties, prioritizing the most recent and most granular data available, and excluding funds already secured or allocated.
• To ensure comparability, CPI standardizes data by converting all investment needs to 2022 USD billions and mapping various national sector classifications to the Global Landscape of Climate Finance (GLCF) taxonomy.
• Finance needs are categorized into three types: unconditional (domestic resources), conditional (international support), and unspecified.
• There is a significant lack of comprehensive data in NDCs; less than half of the reviewed documents provided fully costed climate finance needs.
• Data granularity varies widely, with 57 non-Annex I NDCs providing project- or action-level needs, while 47 non-Annex I NDCs provided no quantified needs at all.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2024). Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Assessing-bottom-up-climate-finance-needs.pdf

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology. 2024. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Assessing-bottom-up-climate-finance-needs.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology |date=October 2024 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Assessing-bottom-up-climate-finance-needs.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2024assessing, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Assessing-bottom-up-climate-finance-needs.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }