Guidelines for Building a National Landscape of Climate Finance

The guide outlines a structured process for building a national landscape of climate finance, moving from scoping and definition to data collection and final analysis. It emphasizes the importance of stakeholder engagement, the use of taxonomies to categorize climate-beneficial versus harmful flows, and the application of tools like Sankey diagrams to visualize financial flows from source to end-use. The document draws on Climate Policy Initiative's (CPI) experience in countries such as India, Indonesia, and France to provide practical examples of tracking both public and private climate finance.

• Tracking national climate finance supports the policy process by increasing transparency and accountability, establishing baselines for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and helping countries meet the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) requirements of the Paris Agreement.
• The process for developing a national climate finance landscape consists of four primary steps: scoping the landscape, setting definitions and frameworks, collecting and verifying data, and consolidating and analyzing the database for presentation.
• A comprehensive scoping exercise must determine the sector focus (adaptation and mitigation), geographic scope (national or sub-national), temporal coverage (annual vs. multiple year, ex-post vs. ex-ante), and the nature of transactions (commitments vs. disbursements).
• Because there is no single international definition of climate finance, countries should develop taxonomies that include positive lists of compatible activities, negative lists of excluded activities, and technical eligibility criteria.
• Investments can be categorized into three main impact groups: climate-beneficial (e.g., renewable energy), conditionally aligned or 'do no harm' (e.g., biofuels), and climate-harmful or 'dirty flows' (e.g., new coal-fired plants).
• Data gaps, particularly in private sector finance, can be addressed using an 'investment unit cost approach,' where total expenditure is estimated by multiplying the volume of equipment (e.g., electric vehicles) by their unit price.
• Effective data collection requires strong buy-in from government agencies; for example, CPI's work in Indonesia was facilitated by formal relationships with the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) and Financial Services Authority (OJK), while work in Kenya benefited from collaboration with the National Treasury.

APA

Meattle, C., Falconer, A., & Furio, V. (2021). Guidelines for Building a National Landscape of Climate Finance. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Guidelines-for-Building-a-National-Landscape-of-Climate-Finance-4.pdf

Chicago

Meattle, Chavi, Angela Falconer, and Valerie Furio. Guidelines for Building a National Landscape of Climate Finance. Climate Policy Initiative, 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Guidelines-for-Building-a-National-Landscape-of-Climate-Finance-4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Meattle |first1=Chavi |last2=Falconer |first2=Angela |last3=Furio |first3=Valerie |title=Guidelines for Building a National Landscape of Climate Finance |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=January 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Guidelines-for-Building-a-National-Landscape-of-Climate-Finance-4.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{meattle2021guidelines, author = {Meattle, Chavi and Falconer, Angela and Furio, Valerie}, title = {{Guidelines for Building a National Landscape of Climate Finance}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Guidelines-for-Building-a-National-Landscape-of-Climate-Finance-4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }