Following the first meeting of the board of the new global Green Climate Fund, and as UNFCCC parties meet in Bangkok to take stock of progress in implementing the Durban Platform, Climate Funds Update reflects on major developments in climate finance over the last six months.
Nearly $1 billion has been pledged to dedicated climate funds
The UK, United States, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland have pledged an additional $937 million since January 2012 to the 22 climate finance initiatives that we monitor on Climate Funds Update. In addition, $911 million has been deposited to these funds. Approximately $750 million of this funding has been pledged to the Climate Investment Funds – primarily the Clean Technology Fund($414 million) and the Pilot Program on Climate Resilience ($226 million). Contributing countries have collectively deposited $911 million across the 22 climate finance initiatives that we monitor on Climate Funds Update.
Some new actors are engaging
The Brazilian oil company Petrobas contributed $4.49 million to the Amazon Fund, as part of the company’s efforts to reduce its emission intensity by 15 percent by 2015. Similarly the climate investor CDC Climat and global oil company BP each deposited $5 million to the Carbon Fund of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.
Nearly $ 1 billion in finance for new projects has been approved
This suggests an increase in the pace at which funds have been allocating finance; notably the Climate Investment Funds, the Global Environment Facility, the Special Climate Change Fund and the Congo Basin Forest Fund have been allocating finance. Funding has largely been directed to projects in Asia and the Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa. However disbursement continues to be slow, and our data suggests that only $225 million more has been disbursed over the past 6 months. The Adaptation Fund, however, has now disbursed $29 million since the beginning of the year, which is almost double the finance that it disbursed until last year.
Making our data more accessible
We have introduced a new set of tools to help users interrogate and analyse our data to understand key trends and issues in climate finance. Users can consider the various funds that provide finance, which regions and countries they are supporting, and what types of projects are funded.
We have also enhanced our data quality by distinguishing between the administrative costs that funds incur and the finance that they actually direct to developing countries. Similarly, we have singled out revenues and overheads for funds, such as the revenues from the sale of Certified Emission Reductions in the case of the Adaptation Fund, from government contributions to a fund.
We hope that you will find the new functions of the website useful, and would welcome your feedback and ideas as we continue to invest in Climate Funds Update as a leading source of independent information on climate finance.