Limiting global temperature rise to below 1.5°Celsius while achieving sustainable development will require trillions in new investments, and a deliberate shift toward low-carbon, climate-resilient economic models.
With deep expertise in policy and finance, CPI’s analysts and advisors help governments, businesses, and financial institutions drive economic growth while addressing climate change. Our Climate Finance program, led by Dr. Barbara Buchner, works to drive low carbon, resilient investment at scale.
We work in three key areas to achieve this vision:
- State of Finance and Policy. CPI is the leading authority on tracking and analyzing climate finance flows. Our Global Landscape of Climate Finance report is the most comprehensive inventory of climate change investment available. It is a key tool for policy makers to assess the scale of finance, identify the main actors in the market, reveal investment gaps, and highlight opportunities to mobilize finance to fulfill investment potential. Our robust climate finance tracking methodology has led us to engage with 22 countries for domestic tracking, including beginning work with the governments of India, Indonesia, Brazil, Kenya, and Southern Africa to supplement their NDC financing strategies. In addition, our methodology has been used for analysis in critical sectors that need more finance, including land use, adaptation, energy access, and renewable energy finance. Our work influenced the Paris Agreement, and continues to be used by the UNFCCC and the International Development Finance Club in policy making discussions.
- Effective Finance and Policy. CPI advises governments and development finance institutions on the effectiveness of their portfolios, including the UK government’s Department for International Development, the Climate Investment Funds, and the Ministry of Finance in Indonesia. Other work includes supporting Paris alignment among development finance institutions by contracting with the International Development Finance Club, a group of 26 development banks with a combined 4tn of assets under management, to advise members on aligning their portfolios with the Paris Agreement. CPI also works to improve public finance interventions in key regions, such as India and Indonesia. For example, in India, we have worked with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Ministry of Finance to illuminate issues around the cost of capital and revise low-cost debt policies.
- Transformative Solutions. CPI supports the implementation of new and transformative finance solutions that mobilize sustainable investment at scale. CPI manages the Lab: a high-level group of public and private investors that identifies, develops, and supports pilots of transformative climate finance instruments. Since its start in 2014, the investment vehicles incubated and launched by the Lab have collectively mobilized over USD 3.5 billion in finance for renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, water, and climate resilience projects around the world. The Lab has been endorsed by the governments of India, Brazil, and the G7. CPI also manages the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, a multi-level and multi-stakeholder coalition aimed at closing the investment gap for urban subnational climate projects and infrastructure, and USICEF, India’s first project preparation facility for distributed renewable energy.