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This research paper by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) proposes a quantitative approach to tracking the quality of public climate finance. It builds upon a three-level conceptual framework—project, market, and system levels—to identify practical indicators that can reduce subjectivity in quality judgments and improve coordination among public finance providers.

The report argues that while tracking the quantity of climate finance is established, tracking its quality remains nascent. It proposes a three-level conceptual framework—project, market, and system—to move beyond one-off project outputs toward sustained transformational change. At the project level, it emphasizes core indicators like tCO2e for mitigation and beneficiaries reached for adaptation. At the market level, it focuses on creation, scalability, and inclusiveness, highlighting private finance catalyzation and job creation. At the system level, it identifies three catalytic pathways (singular, centralized, and decentralized) to track structural shifts in paradigms, policies, and institutional arrangements. The report concludes by identifying nine key indicators as a starting point for a common reporting approach across public climate finance actors.

The report concludes that Goal 6 has been achieved through the adoption of the SDGs in 2015. However, it highlights a critical gap in the measurement of SDG 15.2, noting that indicators track net rather than gross deforestation, which obscures the loss of natural forests. Additionally, it finds that targets for forest restoration, afforestation, and reforestation lack quantifiable metrics.

The 2018 Green Economy Barometer for Mongolia highlights a significant gap between the country's legislative commitments and actual implementation. While the government has adopted the National Green Development Policy and Sustainable Development Vision 2030, Mongolia ranked 79th out of 80 countries in the 2016 Global Green Economy Index. The report argues that investing 4% of GDP into green development could reduce poverty to 10% and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2030. Current challenges include severe air pollution in Ulaanbaatar, land degradation affecting 77.8% of land, and a precarious economic dependence on volatile mineral exports.

The document proposes a framework for measuring agricultural resilience in eastern Ontario, Canada, moving beyond traditional risk-reduction to a holistic, system-based approach. It identifies 36 indicators across six themes—climate change, population, farmland production, market and economy, rural infrastructure, and natural environment—to track the capacity of rural systems to absorb shocks and adapt. The authors emphasize that while some data is readily available, significant gaps exist in detailed farm economic data. The briefing argues for cross-sectoral collaboration to break down government 'silos' and suggests that these indicators are transferable to other agricultural regions across Canada.

The document evaluates global forest restoration progress using two indicators: Bonn Challenge pledges and UNFCCC Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). As of November 2015, Bonn Challenge commitments reached 62.6 million hectares (41.7% of the 2020 target), while UNFCCC INDCs included pledges for approximately 121.7 million hectares (35% of the 2030 target). The report notes that while commitments have increased, they are often clustered around major agreements and require a faster rate of pledging to meet targets. It also highlights significant data gaps in standardized global aggregates and the limitations of satellite imagery in detecting small-scale forest growth.

The report establishes a monitoring framework for the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF), assessing ten goals related to halting deforestation, restoring landscapes, and improving governance. While it notes that 'overall progress remains slow', it identifies positive trends such as the inclusion of a deforestation target in the Sustainable Development Goals and an increase in clean cookstove distribution. The document highlights significant data gaps, particularly regarding non-agricultural drivers of deforestation and domestic public spending on forests, while noting that 'data are mostly trending in the right direction'.