Estimating mobilized private finance for adaptation: exploring data and methods

The report identifies a significant gap in tracking private finance for climate adaptation, noting that less than 10% of publicly-mobilized private climate finance is directed toward adaptation. It proposes four methodological approaches—ranging from 'Direct' to 'Indirect Expanded'—to better capture how public interventions, including those providing enabling outputs like capacity building, trigger private investment. Through case studies in Northern Uganda and the African Risk Capacity, the authors demonstrate that relying solely on direct co-financing data leads to underestimations of mobilization. The report concludes that while indirect mobilization is harder to measure and carries higher risks of double counting, tracking it is essential to incentivize the upstream public support necessary for climate resilience.

• Private finance for adaptation is severely underrepresented compared to mitigation; less than 10% of private finance mobilized by developed countries' public finance is for adaptation, while over 90% is for mitigation.
• Publicly available data on private adaptation finance is extremely limited, with only about 7% of public finance adaptation activities recorded in 2013 showing a possible private finance involvement in terms of activity number and finance volumes.
• Private actors rarely use the term 'adaptation', instead integrating climate resilience into broader risk management, which makes it difficult for commercial databases to identify adaptation-specific investments.
• The report defines three types of mobilization: 'direct' (co-financed at the same project/fund), 'intermediated-direct' (public finance provided one step upstream via a fund or credit line), and 'indirect' (public finance supporting enabling outputs like technical assistance or policy development).
• The study developed four methodological approaches to measure mobilization, varying by the types of interventions considered, accounting boundaries, and causality assessment. Approaches 1 and 2 focus on direct/intermediated-direct finance, while Approaches 3 and 4 include indirect mobilization.
• Case study results show that the estimated amount of mobilized private finance varies significantly by method; for example, the African Risk Capacity insurance mechanism showed no mobilization under Approaches 1 and 2, but significant mobilization under Approaches 3 and 4.
• There is an inverse relationship between the accuracy and incentives of a methodology and its practicality and potential for standardization. Indirect mobilization is more accurate but time-consuming and carries a higher risk of double counting if public actors do not use a coherent approach.

APA

Brown, J., Stadelmann, M., Wang, D., Boni, L., Jachnik, R., & Kato, T. (2015). Estimating mobilized private finance for adaptation: exploring data and methods. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Estimating-mobilized-private-finance-for-adaptation-Executive-Summary.pdf

Chicago

Brown, Jessica, Martin Stadelmann, David Wang, Leonardo Boni, Raphaël Jachnik, and Takayoshi Kato. Estimating mobilized private finance for adaptation: exploring data and methods. Climate Policy Initiative, 2015. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Estimating-mobilized-private-finance-for-adaptation-Executive-Summary.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Brown |first1=Jessica |last2=Stadelmann |first2=Martin |last3=Wang |first3=David |last4=Boni |first4=Leonardo |last5=Jachnik |first5=Raphaël |last6=Kato |first6=Takayoshi |title=Estimating mobilized private finance for adaptation: exploring data and methods |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=November 2015 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Estimating-mobilized-private-finance-for-adaptation-Executive-Summary.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{brown2015estimating, author = {Brown, Jessica and Stadelmann, Martin and Wang, David and Boni, Leonardo and Jachnik, Raphaël and Kato, Takayoshi}, title = {{Estimating mobilized private finance for adaptation: exploring data and methods}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2015}, month = nov, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Estimating-mobilized-private-finance-for-adaptation-Executive-Summary.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }