Climate Finance Additionality: Emerging Definitions and Their Implications

I. Introduction

The Copenhagen Accord calls for a collective commitment by developed countries to provide ‘new and additional resources...approaching USD 30 billion for the period 2010- 2012 with balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation... [and] in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation, developed countries commit to a goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries.’ Rapid and successful deployment of this international public finance is a critical first step in allowing developing countries to adapt to climate change and pursue actions that will allow them to move onto a low carbon development pathway. However, it remains unclear (1) how additionality is defined in the Copenhagen Accord when it promises ‘new and additional resources’; and (2) how such large sums of money are going to be raised. These considerations remain elusive in the Accord, but are fundamental to ensuring that financial commitments are met and secured in such a way that international public funds are not diverted away from long-term commitments to support development in poor countries. Therefore, further reflection is needed around how ‘new and additional’ is being defined and what this implies for developing countries.

This paper explores the following two main issues:
- How is additionality being defined by different political actors?
- What are the technical and political implications of these different definitions? And what do the varying definitions require in terms of tracking and the measurement, reporting and verification of finance?

Click here for the full publication (11 pages, pdf, 680KB)