Establishing a measurement,reporting,and verification system for climate finance in post-Paris agreement period

The measurement,reporting,and verification(MRV) of climate finance was originated from discussions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC).It has been one of the key issues of global climate negotiations since 2009 and will continue to be of significant importance in addressing climate change and strengthening international trust.This paper analyses the concept,the objective,and the progress of the MRV of climate finance based on reviews of the latest literature and think-tank reports regarding climate finance regime and MRV.Following the analysis,challenges faced with the MRV of climate finance are illustrated.This paper presents that the comparability of climate finance data needs to be improved due to the variety of methodologies used for disaggregating climate finance.In addition,the integrality of the MRV system of climate finance has been impaired by the lack of feedback mechanism from the recipients to the contributors in reporting system.Furthermore,although accounting system of climate finance has been developing and improving,it remains incapacity in providing accurate data on disbursed climate finance.Responding to the above challenges,this paper proposes the key tasks in establishing a comprehensive MRV system for climate finance at international level.The tasks involve developing a measurement system with consistent data basis and accounting basis,a reporting system with more detailed guidance and standardized formats,as well as a verification mechanism balancing top-down and bottom-up review processes.In the last section,this paper concludes that the establishment of an improved MRV of climate finance requires concerted cooperation and negotiations between developed and developing country Parties under the UNFCCC.As one of the few developing country donors to the Global Environmental Facility(GEF),China is suggested to clarify its propositions as a developing country in aspects such as concept,coverage,and architecture of climate finance and MRV system,and gain bargaining power in improving operating and technical rules of international climate finance regime.

Geneva Meeting Pushes Climate Finance to Top of “Cancun Agenda”

Last week,Ministers and other high level officials made progress on establishing the details of how hundreds of billions of dollars in climate aid will be raised and distributed at an informal meeting in Geneva,Switzerland.

Blind spots in climate finance for innovation Peter WARREN

International climate finance is a sub-set of green finance and refers to investments specifically in climate change mitigation and adaptation activities,which primarily involve public finance and the leveraging of private finance in developing countries.In addition to continued international support for scaling low carbon solutions and facilitating replicability in developing countries,there remains an important need to increase the amount of climate finance provided to innovation,particularly demonstration(for technology innovation)and pilot implementation(for policy innovation),and to channel a greater proportion of Official Development Assistance(ODA)to‘hard-to-abate'areas,such as industrial decarbonisation,international transport and cross-sectoral issues like cooling and behavioural insights,to accelerate the commercialisation and implementation of technological,linancial and policy solutions to contribute to meeting the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to‘well-below'2℃ in these countries.Linking research,development and demonstration(RD&D)support with technical assistance is important in providing the route to obtain wider donor finance(concessional finance)and private finance to enable deployment through scalability and replicability.

Renewable Energy： The Trillion Dollar Opportunity for Chinese Overseas Investment

This paper compares the global flows of Chinese overseas investment in power plants with renewable energy investment potential embodied in ＂Nationally Determined Contributions.＂ With over US$1tn （671 GW） in Nationally Determined Contributions renewable energy investment potential in developing countries, we estimate the total level of power plant investments from China＇s policy banks and commercial entities since the early 2000s at US$216bn （158 GW）. Although past investment has mainly been directed at fossil fuels and hydroelectric power, we argue that China is uniquely poised to lead renewable energy global investments for three reasons： （i） China＇s solar and wind industries are globally competitive; （ii） Chinese policy banks can give domestic firms advantages in financing global expansion; and （iii） renewable energy investment opportunities still exist in developing countries with less sovereign risk than for traditional energy investments. The Chinese government should provide special incentives for the policy banks to capitalize on these investment opportunities by deploying Chinese solar and wind technologies to Belt and Road countries and beyond.