Assessing Bottom-Up Climate Finance Needs Methodology

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) outlines the methodology used to estimate 'bottom-up' climate finance needs, which are the financial requirements stated by countries in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reach national climate targets.

• CPI distinguishes between top-down and bottom-up climate finance needs. Top-down needs are derived from predictive models to keep global temperature rises within 1.5°C, while bottom-up needs are the specific requirements stated by countries in official documents like NDCs to reach their own national targets.
• Bottom-up climate finance needs are materially lower than top-down needs because the cumulative commitments in current NDCs are insufficient to align with a net-zero pathway.
• CPI's methodology for estimating bottom-up needs involves reviewing 168 NDCs from UNFCCC Parties that ratified the Paris Agreement. The process prioritizes the most recent data and the highest level of granularity available, such as project-level costs over sectoral aggregates.
• To ensure comparability across diverse national reports, CPI standardizes data by matching it to the Global Landscape of Climate Finance (GLCF) taxonomy, converting all investment needs to 2022 USD billion using inflation rates, and converting cumulative needs into annual averages.
• The report identifies significant data gaps and limitations in NDCs. Less than half of the reviewed NDCs provide comprehensive, fully costed climate finance needs, and many countries do not quantify needs at all.
• CPI categorizes finance needs into three types: unconditional (domestic resources), conditional (international financial support), and unspecified. The analysis excludes finance that has already been secured or allocated, treating it as 'received finance'.

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} }