Africa, Asia and Latin America, which combined account for the vast majority of the world’s population, as well as the greater part of its poor people, have historically contributed least to the problem of climate change yet face some of its most severe impacts. Climate finance, if democratically governed, can play an important role in assisting these vulnerable peoples and communities to withstand and adapt to the impacts of climate change. As the climate finance regime is developing, we explore in this policy brief how and to what extent finance is effectively addressing the vital needs of developing regions. In particular, we discuss three significant regional trends in climate finance, namely the balance between adaptation and mitigation, public versus private financing and the role of regional development banks.
The context for this briefing paper is a civil society meeting hosted by the Corruption and Governance Programme of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Cape Town in September 2010. Experts based in Africa, Asia and Latin America presented papers discussing the regional contexts and the national and subnational experiences with climate funds in their regions.
These papers have been compiled into an ISS report on monitoring the governance of climate finance. The study offers an approach that is grounded in the realities and common experiences in funding arrangements across developing countries in the three regions studied. The issues raised here reflect on some of the findings of that report.
This briefing paper is the first in a series of three. The second will discusses national and subnational experiences with the Adaptation Fund, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). The third brief will present the priorities and principles required for developing a just and effective system of climate finance at national and subnational levels.