A Review of Domestic Data Sources for Climate Finance Flows in Recipient Countries

In recent years, increasing attention and efforts have been put towards monitoring climate related financial support for developing countries. The Biannual Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows Report (2016) of the Standing Committee on Finance (SFC) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) identified that financial support from developed countries to developing countries increased 15% in the period 2013-2014. However, the allocation of such support is unbalanced with 70% going towards mitigation efforts and only 25% to adaptation, even though the number of vulnerable countries and the costs of climate change impacts are already producing significant social and economic losses.

Measuring, reporting on, and verifying climate finance effectively increases accountability and trust between parties. However, many developing countries have limited experience with these topics. This is particularly the case for the analysis of finance for adaptation. As such, few developing countries have included this information in reporting tools submitted to the UNFCCC.

In an effort to identify the limitations of climate finance reporting and provide key recommendations to improve this within the context of compliance with the Paris Agreement, this research analyzes the status of reporting mechanisms that exist under the UNFCCC.

The study, A Review of Domestic Data Sources for Climate Finance Flows in Recipient Countries, focuses on six countries as case studies – Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines and Zambia - and documents their experiences in these activities.