In December 2015, countries will gather in Paris to finalize a new global agreement to tackle climate change. Decisions about how to unlock finance in support of developing countries’ low-carbon and climate-resilient development will be a central part of the talks. But key questions about how to finance the larger, global transition, will remain largely unresolved. These include, how much climate finance is needed around the world to deliver low-carbon energy systems and climate-resilience? How much investment is already flowing? Who are the key actors? And what is the optimal balance between public and private resources?

The Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2014 draws together climate finance data from numerous sources to present policy makers with the most comprehensive information available about the scale, key actors, instruments, recipients, and uses of finance supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation outcomes.

The authors note that there are major data gaps which continue to challenge our understanding about climate finance and limit the ability of policy makers to address investment gaps. The lack of common definitions for climate finance and activity boundaries (especially for adaptation), and methodological differences in how climate finance is tracked and reported present major challenges. Serious data limitations concerning private investments in adaptation, forestry, and energy efficiency, mean that all flows captured in these sectors originate from public sources. It does not mean private investments are not being made, but our understanding of who the actors are, and where they are investing is limited as a result.

The report notes that despite improvements, it remains difficult to assess how the total flows captured by the Landscape compare to the estimated needs at the sector, country, and international levels, or how effective investments are on the ground.