What Counts: Tools to Help Define and Understand Progress Towards the $100 Billion Climate Finance Commitment

The paper identifies five key variables—motivation, concessionality/source, causality, geographic origin, and recipient—that shape the debate over what constitutes climate finance. It uses concentric 'onion diagrams' to map these variables based on the level of political consensus among stakeholders, with the center representing the strongest consensus. The authors provide an integrated framework to help Parties transparently communicate their preferences and identify zones of agreement, while also highlighting critical accounting issues such as committed versus disbursed funds and nominal versus subsidy costs.

• The debate over what counts toward the $100 billion goal is distilled into five key variables: motivation (intent to reduce emissions or support adaptation), concessionality/source (public vs private and the 'softness' of finance), causality (the extent to which intervention mobilized further investment), geographic origin, and recipient.
• There is a higher political consensus that public flows, particularly those with high concessionality such as grants and grant-equivalent instruments, should count toward the goal, whereas consensus is weaker for non-concessional loans and guarantees.
• The 'motivation' variable distinguishes between funds explicitly budgeted for climate change, investments with clear climate objectives but no specific budget earmark, and investments that provide climate co-benefits but have different primary objectives.
• Geographic origin debates center on whether only finance mobilized in developed countries (the North) counts, or if domestic finance within recipient countries and South-South flows mobilized by Northern interventions should be included.
• The interpretation of 'new and additional' finance is highly fragmented, with at least ten different commonly referenced definitions used by countries, ranging from funds from new sources (like emissions trading levies) to funds in excess of ODA baselines.
• The authors suggest that the lack of consensus around private flows may be linked to the fact that these flows are larger in magnitude and far less well-documented than public flows.

APA

Bodnar, P., Brown, J., & Nakhooda, S. (2015). What Counts: Tools to Help Define and Understand Progress Towards the $100 Billion Climate Finance Commitment. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/What-Counts-Tools-to-Help-Define-and-Understand-Progress-Towards-the-100-Billion-Climate-Finance-Commitment.pdf

Chicago

Bodnar, Paul, Jessica Brown, and Smita Nakhooda. What Counts: Tools to Help Define and Understand Progress Towards the $100 Billion Climate Finance Commitment. Climate Policy Initiative, 2015. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/What-Counts-Tools-to-Help-Define-and-Understand-Progress-Towards-the-100-Billion-Climate-Finance-Commitment.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bodnar |first1=Paul |last2=Brown |first2=Jessica |last3=Nakhooda |first3=Smita |title=What Counts: Tools to Help Define and Understand Progress Towards the $100 Billion Climate Finance Commitment |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=August 2015 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/What-Counts-Tools-to-Help-Define-and-Understand-Progress-Towards-the-100-Billion-Climate-Finance-Commitment.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bodnar2015what, author = {Bodnar, Paul and Brown, Jessica and Nakhooda, Smita}, title = {{What Counts: Tools to Help Define and Understand Progress Towards the \$100 Billion Climate Finance Commitment}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2015}, month = aug, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/What-Counts-Tools-to-Help-Define-and-Understand-Progress-Towards-the-100-Billion-Climate-Finance-Commitment.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }