Climate Policy & Finance Archive

Fuel to the Fire

The present report investigates the early, ongoing, and often surprising role of the fossil fuel industry in developing, patenting, and promoting key geoengineering technologies. 

Local actors ready to act: Six proposals to improve their access to the Green Climate Fund

This booklet proposes six specific recommendations to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board, Secretariat and other relevant policy-makers to increase access of local actors to climate funds, and ensure accessible, gender-responsive climate finance decision-making processes. These proposals range from setting up small grants facilities to a complete revision of the operations and results framework of climate funds. The booklet is meant to stimulate more and deeper debate on the crucial role local actors play in the transformative change needed to deal with global climate change.

Climate Finance Fundamentals 8: Climate Finance Regional Briefing: Asia

The diversity of active funds in the region is not matched in the distribution of finance. Considerable amounts of finance have flowed to fast-growing economies such as India and Indonesia, primarily for mitigation projects. On the other hand, a number of populous nations at considerable risk to climate change, such as Pakistan, have received relatively little.

Climate Finance Fundamentals 6: Climate Finance Regional Briefing: Latin America

Latin America is a highly heterogeneous region, with differences in levels of economic development and social and indigenous history, both among and within countries. The impacts of climate change, in particular glacial melt and changes in river flows, extreme weather events and risks to food production systems affect development in both rural and urban areas in the region.

Climate Finance Fundamentals 11: The Green Climate Fund

Heading into COP 23 in Bonn under a Fiji COP presidency, this Climate Finance Fundamental provides a snapshot of the operationalization and functions of the Fund. While the Fund’s role in a post-2020 climate regime as the major finance channel under the Convention was confirmed, the scale of its resourcing remains to be clarified post-Paris

Promoting Rights-based Climate Finance for People and Planet

This draft report sets out the key human rights risks associated with climate finance, the human rights responsibilities of State and private actors in the mobilization and administration of funding and the governance of funds and the current international architecture for climate finance.

Climate Governance and the Role of Climate Finance in Morocco

As a country very vulnerable to climate change impacts, Morocco, the host of COP22, has very high climate ambitions and has taken on a global leadership role in committing to a renewable energy future. This study explores what role climate finance has played to allow Morocco to act as a trendsetter and how its climate finance governance can be further improved.  

COP 21 and the Paris Agreement: A Force Awakened

The acceptance of the Paris Agreement is a historic moment and sends a powerful signal that structural transformation on a global scale is possible. However, when judged against the enormity of the challenge and the needs and pressure from people on the ground, it is still a disappointment. 

Coal Atlas: Facts and figures on a fossil fuel

Coal contributes more to climate change than any other energy source. It is therefore of utmost importance that the world finds ways by which to tame King Coal, especially as international climate negotiations get underway in Paris later this month. The Coal Atlas - a joint publication by the Heinrich Boell Foundation and Friends of the Earth International - highlights new facts and figures on the state of the global coal industry. 

Carbon Metrics: Global abstractions and ecological epistemicide

Climate change is framed as the largest threat. But is climate change more important and than the loss of biodiversity, the degradation of arable soils, or the depletion of fresh water? The way we describe and frame a problem very much predetermines the kinds of solutions and answers we seek. The authors of this essay invite the readers to take a step back and brush climate policy against the nap.

"Hurry Slowly” Toward Full Operationalization

The 9th GCF Board meeting in March made a number of key decisions, including the accreditation of its first seven implementing entities.  However, much important homework needs to be done, which is why the GCF should “hurry slowly” towards full operationalization and put important procedures for monitoring and accountability in place first, writes Liane Schalatek.

The Adaptation Fund at a Crossroads

What is the future of the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund in a new competitive environment that includes the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as a muscled and now well-resourced player in multilateral climate finance? An expert dialogue organized by HBS North America and the ecbi explores various options for the Adaptation Fund.

10 Things to Know about Climate Finance in 2014

Did you know that in 2014 the Green Climate Fund in a matter of weeks became the largest climate fund with $10.2 bn in new pledges? Or that the Ban Ki-moon climate summit in September galvanized over $200 bn in climate related financial commitments? These are just two of the "10 things to know about climate finance in 2014". This compilation of graphics is highlighting noteworthy insights from monitoring efforts of Climate Funds Update over the past year.

Green Climate Fund - A Status Update going into the Berlin Pledge Meeting

This briefing, part of the HBF-Overseas Development Institute (ODI) briefing series Climate Finance Fundamentals, provides an up-to-date summary of the status of operationalization of the GCF after its last Board meeting in Barbados several weeks ago as contributor countries prepare to confirm significant resources for the new Fund at the first GCF Pledge Meeting in Berlin.  By Liane Schalatek, HBF, and Smita Nakhooda, ODI.

A Handbook of Climate Finance in India

This handbook has been designed as a guide for civil society groups and other stakeholders in India to understand the various issues around climate finance needs and flows, specific to the Indian context. Such knowledge and background information is essential to fulfill the potential of Indian civil society groups to meaningfully engage in the decision-making process.

Next Up: Resource Mobilization!

The 7th Board Meeting of the Green Climate Fund delivers key policies meant to signal that the Fund is ready for business in 2015. The “make-or-break” 7th GCF Board Meeting in Songdo from May 18 -21 delivered the essential operational policy requirements to start the process of collecting money for the Fund. However, more work is needed before the Fund is fully open for business in 2015.  A comprehensive summary report and outlook…

Carbon Majors Funding Loss and Damage

The world’s top-emitting companies should be made accountable for their role in global warming and pay for the loss and damage suffered in many developing countries according to a report by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Climate Justice Programme.

Of Promise, Progress, Perils and Prioritization

The Board and Secretariat of the Green Climate Fund have made some progress in implementing the Fund's promise for a gender-sensitive approach to its funding.  A stock-taking after the recent 7th GCF Board Meeting reveals that there are perils to the full operationalization of the Fund's gender mandate and that some provisions and decisions supporting gender in the GCF should be prioritized in the next few Board meetings.

Post-Bali: It’s Crunch Time! – Report of the 6th GCF Board Meeting

The 6th meeting of the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in Bali from February 19 – February 21, 2014 was meant to propel the new Fund toward full operationalization by year’s end. After Bali, however, this tightly timed goal is in peril. For the GCF Board it is now crunch time to deliver at its May meeting.  

Taking a Gender-Sensitive Approach in the Green Climate Fund to the next Level: Recommendations for the 6th GCF Board Meeting

When the Board of the Green Climate Fund meets in Bali, Indonesia from February 19-21, the GCF’s mandated “gender-sensitive approach” is finally full-fledged on the agenda – and no longer treated under “any other business”. This policy analysis by Elizabeth Eggert (UNDP) and Liane Schalatek looks at options to integrate gender considerations into the operational modalities up for discussion and decision in Bali.

Climate Finance Fundamentals - 2013 Update

In time for COP 19 in Warsaw (Poland), this series of 11 short introductory briefings, written in co-operation with the Overseas Development Institute, has been updated to reflect the latest data available on www.climatefundsupdate.org, the tracking project of ODI/hbf of dedicated climate financing instruments from pledge to project.  

Making Progress toward a Gender-Sensitive Approach in the Green Climate Fund: Recommendations for the 5th Meeting of the GCF Board

As the Board of the Green Climate Fund meets in Paris from October 7-10 with a long agenda and the urgency to move ahead with far-reaching decisions, it is crucial that the mandate of the Governing Instrument's for the GCF to follow "a gender-sensitive approach" is considered in the context of the policies waiting for for the Board's approval. See a joint policy brief by the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America and the climate finance working group of the Global Gender and Climate Alliance.

Difficult Decisions - Deferred? The 4th Green Climate Fund Board Meeting wrestles with the Fund's Business Model and selects its new Executive Director

At its recent meeting in Songdo, South Korea, the GCF Board was faced with a number of ambitious decisions on the Business Model Framework for the Fund, with disagreements about the involvement of the private sector, access of countries to the Fund and what financial instruments to employ. Board members were able to agree on Heda Cheikhrouhou from the African Development Bank as the new Executive Director for the Fund's Secretariat.

Gender Equality in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Where Does it Stand?

The post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have the potential to make a positive, long-lasting difference in addressing today's myriad of unresolved challenges and fundamental crises if they focus on gender equality and macro-economic policy reform. This paper analyses how gender equality is taken up in the post-Rio+20 process.

Setting the Course: The Third Meeting of the Green Climate Fund Board Lays Groundwork for Key Decisions Later this Year

At their third meeting from March 12 - 15 in Berlin, the Board of the Green Climate Fund laid the groundwork for some of the most important decisions it will have to make for the Fund's future in the remaining two Board meetings this year so that the Fund can propel the paradigm shift to low-emission, climate-resilient and gender-responsive sustainable development in recipient countries.

Operationalizing a Gender-Sensitive Approach in the Green Climate Fund

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has a mandate to fund mitigation and adaption action in developing countries while "taking a gender-sensitive approach." With the Fund Board set to discuss and decide the vision, objectives and business model for the Fund, this paper makes a case for mainstreaming gender into the processes and financing of the GCF in conjunction with these decisions.

Democracy, Democratization and Climate Change

Relationships between democracy and more particularly democratization on the one side and climate change and responses to that on the other are underexplored in the two literatures on democratization and climate change. A special issue of the journal DEMOCRATIZATION, with contributions by several Heinrich Böll Foundation authors, explores a variety of facets of this complex and interdependent relationship.

Climate - Migration - Security

Growing evidence of links between climate change, migration, and conflict raise plenty of reasons for concern and it’s time to start thinking about new answers to these multifaceted crisis scenarios. - New report on Climate Change, Migration, and Conflict in South Asia!

Seasons of Change

The State of Qatar is hosting the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Doha from November 26 to December 7, 2012. This webdossier compiles analysis and perspectives from the the Heinrich Böll Stiftung and its partners on how climate change, resource and energy politics relate to political and social change.

From Ignorance to Inclusion

Gender-Responsive Multilateral Adaptation Investments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region – This study analyses how gender-responsive multilateral adaptation projects in the MENA region are, finding and discussing both best and worst practice examples. The authors demands that multilateral institutions in all their MENA adaptation projects implement gender safeguard policies consistent with existing international conventions and instruments on gender equality.

Taking Charge: Summary of first Green Climate Fund Board Meeting

At its historic first meeting from August 23-25 in Geneva, the 24 members of the new Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) officially took charge, eager to decide the direction of the Fund and regain momentum as the Board begins the complex and ambitious work of fully operationalizing the GCF by early 2014.

Dossier: Fairness in a Finite World – Rio+20 and Beyond

20 years after the first Earth Summit, the international community will gather once more in Rio de Janeiro from the 20th to the 22th of June 2012. But for a greener, more equitable and more resource efficient world mere declarations will not be enough. A serious shift in priorities is needed. A greener economy is possible, but it needs to be socially just, gender equitable and democratic.

Gender Relations and Women’s Vulnerability to Climate Change

Recognizing the significance of inequitable gender relations for women’s vulnerability to climate change, this study analyzes if and how an adaptation measure involving a relocation program that gives titles to new public housing to women implemented in response to severe flooding in the Mexican state of Tabasco in 2007, has contributed to modifying gender relations and strengthening gender equality.

European Climate Leadership – Durban and Beyond - Global Climate

Can Europe assert leadership on climate change in light of its myriad problems? The EU was key in shaping the outcome of the last UNFCCC negotiations, the so-called Durban Platform. This paper analyzes the prospects for Europe to continue to act as a driving force towards a greener planet, both at home and abroad.

Engendering the Climate for Change

The effects of climate change and current policy responses have disproportionately negative impacts on women. As part of the effort to address the imbalance, this research assesses policies and practices for gender-just adaption in India.

Lighting up Ladakh

Solar power has the potential to provide secure and reliable energy to rural communities in developing countries. This case study examines an off-grid project in India and assesses it implications for national energy policy.

COP 17 in Durban: A Largely Empty Package

With negotiation time extended for more than 30 hours, the South African Presidency was able to conclude the climate summit in Durban with a "Durban Package" of measures. However, while agreement was reached - barely - many key issues remained unresolved, making the COP17 results in many respects "a largely empty package".

The Complex Web of Climate Finance Decisions in Durban

By some counts no less than eight distinct climate finance decisions are expected at COP 17 in Durban, making the climate finance cluster one of the most crucial ones to address in South Africa. Solving the complex web of interlocking climate finance decisions in Durban also holds the key to unlocking progress in other areas, as this commentary explains.

REDD+ Finance Delivery: Lessons from Early Experience

International funding for reductions of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation as well as for forest conservation (REDD+) has dramatically increased over the past few years. This ODI/Boell Foundation policy brief looks at lessons from the early experience, the challenges that finance delivery and implementation face and discusses some policy options for improvement.

German Greens Want to Strengthen Transatlantic Cooperation on Climate Change

The German Green Party suggests turning climate change cooperation into a strategic priority in the transatlantic relationships. This is the core demand of the motion 17/7356 passed by the Greens in the parliament, the Deutscher Bundestag. Though Congress is so far not acting on climate change, there are other pillars in the US society to connect to and foster collaboration and mutual learning across the Atlantic. One of the vehicles for this is the Transatlantic Climate Bridge of the German government that should be strengthened, according to the resolution of the Greens.

Civil Climate Change Activism in China – More than Meets the Eye

Transitioning towards a low-carbon economy requires the active engagement of civil society. This report explores the growing role of Chinese environmental NGOs in pushing aggressive climate targets and how the Chinese government enhances these efforts to implement ambitious climate change and renewable energy action.

Climate Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Sahara Africa as a region already has been hit hardest by climate change, yet so far has received little of the financial resources it needs to adapt and cope with climate change impacts. This policy brief looks at the state of play of climate finance delivery to the continent, discusses the role of important actors in the region and addresses the problems that hamper a more equitable and effective climate finance delivery to the region.

Ready to be Africa’s Climate Bank?

In early 2011, the African Development Bank (AfDB) indicated its intention to establish and manage an Africa Green Fund to support African states that individually lack the knowledge and technology to secure needed global climate funds. This mapping study evaluates the AfDB's actual track record on sectors and initiatives related to climate change as a clue to the Bank’s suitability to manage any future infusions of funds to address climate change in Africa.  

No Romance. Mobilizing Climate Finance for Africa

Climate finance has recently become a subject of profound interest to the global debates on climate change. At this year’s 17th UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) in Durban, climate finance is expected to feature prominently. This being the “African COP”, we hope that the African perspective on climate finance will receive the attention it deserves.

A Future for International Climate Politics - Global Climate

Two years after the Copenhagen summit, the real world is moving away from a safe and equitable climate future faster than ever. If the G-20 is “the premier forum for international economic development” and we are serious about stopping climate change, we have to ensure that G-20 politics do not undermine our objectives for the climate, the environment, poverty eradica-tion, and global justice.

Gender and Climate Finance: Double Mainstreaming for Sustainable Development

Climate change is not gender-neutral. Suffering from gender-based vulnerabilities to climate change, women are more often victims of climate change than men; however, women also possess knowledge of and experiences in capacities to mitigate as well as strategies to cope and adapt, which makes them important “agents of change” in the fight against global warming.

Engendering the Green Climate Fund

Gender considerations are currently not systematically addressed in existing climate financing instruments; where gender appears, it is in bits and pieces. This is where the Green Climate Fund, currently designed by the 40 members of the Transitional Committee, has a chance to do better.

The Design Process for the Green Climate Fund: Lots of Disagreement, Little Time

With three out of four scheduled meetings of the Transitional Committee tasked with designing the new Green Climate Fund now completed after the recent meeting in Geneva, severe differences remain between the 25 developing countries and the 15 developed countries about form and functions of the Fund. The road to Durban remains bumpy, and TC members have little time to cover a lot of distance.

From Scoping Options to Decision-Making - The Work of the Transitional Committee Going Forward

Half way through the work of the Transitional Committee (TC), the 40-member body tasked by the COP 16 in Cancun to design the new Green Climate Fund (GCF) for approval by the Durban COP, member countries at their recent second meeting in Tokyo focused on further clarifying important points of convergence and divergence among countries. Many of these, though clearly not all, ran largely along a contributor county-recipient country dividing line.

Funding the Energy Transformation at Home AND Abroad!

Observed around the world with varying degrees of curiosity, high expectations and hopes, skepticism, potential good will or schadenfreude, Germany has embarked on probably the furthest reaching energy transformation of any industrialized country by its recent government decision to phase out nuclear energy by 2022.

Reaching Boiling Point? Global Perspectives on the 2011 UN Climate Summit

South Africa plays host to the next UN climate conference in Durban from November 28 to December 9, 2011. This dossier provides an analysis of the major issues at stake and the context in which the negotiations will be held. It offers ongoing commentary and updates on major developments in the run up to the negotiations.

Grounding Green Power

This paper identifies key components of smart renewable energy policy in developing countries, focusing on the power sector. It also provides recommendations for maximizing the effectiveness of international support for deployment of renewable energies, drawn from these on-the-ground experiences in developing countries.

Marginal Oil

With conventional oil production in decline, the global oil industry is investing heavily in dirtier and riskier forms of unconventional oil such as heavy crude, tar sands, and oil shale. These investments pose a challenge to the climate, the environment, and local communities.

A Tentative Start for the Transitional Committee

Global negotiators and observers met for two days in Mexico City at the end of April to start their work of designing the future Green Climate Fund. This first analysis by Liane Schalatek describes options for and potential obstacles to the process.

Climate Adaptation Challenges from a Gender Perspective

On 22 February, the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Women Organizing for Change and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) and the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) co-organized a panel discussion on "Climate Adaptation Challenges from a Gender Perspective - CSO Messages for Rio +20."

Women who Go, Women who Stay: Reactions to Climate Change

Climate change is the biggest environmental problem currently confronting humanity and affecting all socioeconomic sectors in the country and around the world. Its impact, however, is differentiated by gender, economic, social and geopolitical factors. In this case study, interviews with women and men in six communities in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas were conducted.

27 National Energy Action Plans = 1 European Energy Policy?

This Green European Foundatio (GEF) publication is a first, critical look at six National Renewable Energy Action Plans submitted to the European Commission in 2010. These action plans contain detailed information on how these six European Union member states expect to meet their EU renewable energy targets, and hence provide great insight into the expected development of the European energy industry over the coming decade and beyond.

A Matter of Principle(s) - Post-Cancun Update

This paper takes a close look at the status quo of public climate change finance post-Cancun and proposes the use of existing core principles and tools of international environmental law and human rights as the fundamental conceptual guide.

“Challenging, but feasible,….”

…. this is the condensed conclusion of the final report – recently released – of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing (AGF), which was tasked with trying to find ways to raise US$100 billion per year by 2020 for mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries. This number — far less than what many experts believe is really needed — was the sort of political compromise, the lowest common financial denominator, leaders came up with at last year’s international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Canada’s Climate Change Calendar

This report and calendar shows Canada's contribution to climate change in a global perspective. It is intended to provide a fresh perspective on the question of who is responsible for climate change and thus who must take the lead in delivering the solution.

Climate Change and Democratisation

The paper examines whether democracy at the country level and global climate change matter for another. It raises the question of how to support democracy’s advance in the face of multiple challenges that include the adverse effects of global warming and extreme weather events merits much more attention than it has received so far.

The American Way of Change

Researchers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists go beyond politics to find, on their own account, openings for green energies.

Unlocking a low-carbon Europe

Climate change and the reform of the EU budget are the two priorities on the 2010 agenda: Will the EU be able to generate sufficient momentum for a budget reform, which is needed to pursue a low-carbon economy?

Opportunity or Failure?

If the Copenhagen Accord on climate change can be called a small step forward or a grand failure depends on the regional perspective. Two months after the Copenhagen climate summit, this paper sheds some light on the different regional and national evaluations of the conference and analyzes how perceptions on the outcome of the conference vary between key countries and regions.

Gender and Climate Change in Southern Africa

Although various studies have focused on climate change impacts and adaptation opportunities in Africa, few have focused on the household level and in particular on gender differentiated impacts of climate change. This study, commissioned by Heinrich Böll Stiftung, provides an analysis and summary of the findings of eight case studies carried out in four southern African countries. Furthermore, the study aims to identify various policies, programmes and activities that could address these issues.

Going Green. The Future has Begun

The green industrial revolution will, on a grand scale, create new products, services, and jobs. Although much remains to be done, the great transformation is on its way. In this collection of short articles, the authors debate the pros and cons of carbon capture and storage, the American turn to "green," and the questions of how economic growth and climate protection can be reconciled.

Climate Change and the Right to Food

The study proposes concrete methods by which institutions can address climate change problems and realize the right to food symbiotically, in compliance with the principles of systemic integration under international law.

Gender and Climate Finance: Double Mainstreaming for Sustainable Development

Climate change is real, it is happening already, and its impacts on people are not gender-neutral. It is affecting men and women all over the world differently, especially in the world’s poorest countries and amongst the most vulnerable people and communities.1 As women and men have different adaptive and mitigative capabilities, the financing instruments and mechanisms committed to climate change activities in mitigation and adaption need to take these gender-differentiated impacts into account in funds design and operationalization as well as concrete project financing.

New Finance for Climate Change and the Environment

The world has moved beyond simple acknowledgement that climate change and environmental degradation pose significant risks to humanity and the planet’s ecosystems. In recognition of theincreased vulnerability of billions of people, mostly in the developing world, Northern donors have pledged billions of dollars in new financial commitments. Those funds are to be delivered through no fewer than a dozen new environmental funding mechanisms seeking to mitigate these risks and to help the most vulnerable to adapt to coming societal and environmental changes.

How a Changing Climate Impacts Women

This is the report for a roundtable held on September 21, and which was a landmark event, one of the first high-level sessions to focus on the linkages between gender equality and climatechange.