Shifting voluntary climate finance to the high-hanging fruit of climate

The document defines 'high-hanging fruit' as decarbonisation measures that are inaccessible to host governments due to extraordinary costs or insurmountable barriers. It argues that these projects are essential for enhancing overall climate ambition and proposes a shift in how voluntary climate finance and carbon crediting mechanisms identify and fund them. The author suggests redefining 'additionality' to include project inaccessibility, introducing specific labels for such projects, establishing dedicated funds for climate contributions, and calling for leadership from corporations and intermediaries to develop a project pipeline.

• High-hanging fruit mitigation potential consists of technologies and measures for decarbonising emission sources that host country governments cannot access in the near- or medium-term because of insurmountable barriers or extraordinary costs.
• To enable market mechanisms to finance high-hanging fruit, the definition of project 'additionality' must be adjusted to include a demonstration of project inaccessibility.
• The report recommends the implementation of a labelling mechanism for high-hanging fruit projects to distinguish between 'possible' and 'guaranteed' additionality, particularly for standards and registries hesitant to adopt new additionality definitions.
• Because a pipeline of high-hanging fruit projects is not currently available, corporate leaders and proactive intermediaries must drive the identification and generation of project ideas to accelerate the flow of voluntary climate finance.
• Illustrative examples of potential high-hanging fruit technologies include building heat in Mongolia, transport in Indonesia, and agriculture in Georgia.

APA

NewClimate Institute (2023). Shifting voluntary climate finance to the high-hanging fruit of climate. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/shifting-voluntary-climate-finance-to-the-high-hanging-fruit-of-climate

Chicago

NewClimate Institute. Shifting voluntary climate finance to the high-hanging fruit of climate. 2023. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/shifting-voluntary-climate-finance-to-the-high-hanging-fruit-of-climate.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=NewClimate Institute |title=Shifting voluntary climate finance to the high-hanging fruit of climate |date=21 July 2023 |url=http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/shifting-voluntary-climate-finance-to-the-high-hanging-fruit-of-climate |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{newclimateinstitute2023shifting, author = {{NewClimate Institute}}, title = {{Shifting voluntary climate finance to the high-hanging fruit of climate}}, institution = {NewClimate Institute}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/shifting-voluntary-climate-finance-to-the-high-hanging-fruit-of-climate}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }