The R20 Climate Finance Advisory Committee Report – Climate Finance: Status Report and Action Plan

The R20 Climate Finance Advisory Committee in conjunction with the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy created a report to address the topic of climate finance. Climate experts, law makers, and philanthropists gathered together to discuss the current state of climate finance reform and what needs to be done in the future.

After the Paris Agreement, we must now turn ambition into action. Channeling financial flows towards low carbon trajectories is among the major objectives of the agreement. The intense mobilization of international climate finance stakeholders in 2015 made this ambition realistic. What needs to be tackled is the necessary frame conditions to scale-up green financing and the issue of mobilizing the private sector for the climate agenda internationally. We needs to focus on financing sustainable agriculture for adaptation & mitigation, as well as on funding the energy transition.

As we look to realize action at ground level, significant amounts of money will need to start flowing towards climate programs. A goal of providing $100 billion in available global climate finance annually by 2020. Funds available specifically for projects and programs aimed at combating climate change have been outlines. This will be catalytic to unlocking the trillions of dollars which will be ultimately required to bring about real change.

Only by re-designing climate financing can the commitments made in Paris  be realized. Current climate financing mechanisms need to provide greater opportunities for smallholders in the global community to access upfront investment. The way that current systems are set up to withhold payments until emissions reductions are achieved does not provide an incentive for urgent action by people on the ground. If donor funded schemes must stick to the payment by results mechanism then more needs to be done to channel funding towards supporting communities to meet their short-term needs.

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