The library is being populated with the most relevant publications, including the latest ones of 2011.

Direct Access to the Adaptation Fund: realising the potential of National Implementing Entities

The Adaptation Fund (AF), established by the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is mandated to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol and to allow direct access to the Fund by Parties. It is this latter characteristic - direct access - that has raised considerable interest among the international climate change community. Civil society has praised this development as an innovative element of the Fund's governance structure that seeks to ensure country ownership. Also, if direct access proves successful, it will provide an evidence base that can serve as a model for future funding, including current discussions around the establishement of a "Global Green Climate Fund". Now that the AF is fully operational, with two projects approved and six more proposals endorsed, what is the evidence that the direct access modality is providing the type of success onlookers are hoping for? This paper explores the current status of direct access and examines the challenges countries face in securing its potential.

KEYWORDS: adaptation fund, Climate Change, Climate finance, access

SOURCE: http://www.climatefundsupdate.org/news/untitlnewclimatefinancepolicybriefno3-directaccesstotheadaptationfundrealizingthepotentialofnationalimplementingentities

Strengthening International Climate Finance

With climate finance needs in developing countries projected to grow significantly in coming decades, governments are considering steps under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to strengthen international climate finance. Key steps include: establishing a new multilateral climate fund with an independent board under the guidance of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP); a new UNFCCC finance body to advise the COP and promote coordination among funding institutions; a registry mechanism to link finance to mitigation actions; and stronger procedures for reporting and verifying flows.

KEYWORDS: Climate Finance, UNFCCC, mechanism

SOURCE: http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/strengthening-international-climate-finance.pdf

The Runaway Summit: The Background Story of the Danish Presidency of COP15, the UN Climate Change Conference

As COP16 kicks off, there is good reason to look back at Copenhagen and ask what all of us can learn from the dramatic summit in the Bella Center in December 2009. Read a 25-page article here, summarizing the main difficulties parties faced last year. Difficulties that will hopefully be overcome this year in Cancun. The article is peer-reviwed and published in the respected Danish Foreing Policy Yearbook 2010

KEYWORDS: COP15, Climate Change, Copenhagen

SOURCE: http://www.diis.dk/graphics/Publications/Books2010/YB2010/YB2010-Runaway-summit_WEB.pdf

Capturing and conserving natural coastal carbon, Building mitigation, advancing adaptation

Carbon stores in seagrass beds and coastal wetlands—including coastal peats, tidal freshwater wetlands, salt marshes and mangroves—are vast, unaccounted natural carbon sinks. The continued degradation of these coastal ecosystems through disturbance, drainage, reclamation and conversion to other land uses has resulted in substantial emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and loss of natural carbon sequestration. Conserving and rebuilding these critical ecosystems not only mitigates GHG emissions, but delivers important co-benefits including ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change. A drive to protect and rebuild coastal wetlands and seagrass beds calls for closer integration of these fragile land-ocean interfaces into national climate change actions and their inclusion into the activities of the international climate change dialogue.

KEYWORDS: carbon storage, coastal ecosystem, mitigation and adaptation

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Mitigating risk to spark private investments

Scaling‐up investment in energy efficiency is essential to achieving a sustainable energy future. Despite energy efficiency’s recognised advantages as a bankable investment with immense climate change mitigation benefits, most of the energy efficiency (EE) potential remains untapped and the investment gap to achieve climate goals is tremendous. This report seeks to improve understanding as to why this is so, and what can be done about it.

KEYWORDS: Energy efficiency, private investment, climate change mitigation

SOURCE: http://www.iea.org/papers/efficiency/money_matters.pdf

Law Carbon Technology transfer: Lessons from India and China

Low carbon technology transfer to developing countries has a central role to play in mitigating carbon emissions. It is a key issue for the international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Although the Convention was intended to facilitate low carbon technology transfer, its success in achieving this has been limited, Many developing nations have expressed frustration that their expectations have not been met. Despite the high profile of technology transfer within the UNFCCC negotiations, there is relatively little empirical evidence upon which to base policy. Global policy solutions from other domains such as health and agriculture have only limited applicability. This briefing note discusses these challenges, based on empirical research on India and China led by the Sussex Energy Group over the past five years.

KEYWORDS: Law Carbon, Technology transfer, finance

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Monitoring Climate Finance and ODA

This Issues Brief examines the challenges of monitoring financial flows related to climate change. The first part focuses on tracking, monitoring, and reporting various types of flows, primarily from official development assistance (ODA) and other public sources but also from private sources. The second part explores possible ways of tracking additionality in ODA flows, with the aim of stimulating global discussion on this issue. A more comprehensive support document on this topic can be found on the World Bank website at beta.worldbank.org/climatechange.

KEYWORDS: Development, Climate, Finance

SOURCE: http://beta.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/documents/DCFIB%231-web-June15.pdf

Making the most of public Finance for Climate Action

Through a range of examples, this Issues Brief illustrates how public finance can catalyze climate action by piloting innovative ways to leverage both climate and development finance, such as combining resources and instruments to maximize synergies, exploring new opportunities to expand the scope for market mechanisms, and strengthening the capacity to facilitate access to resources and their effective use.

KEYWORDS: Development, Climate, Finance

SOURCE: http://beta.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/documents/DCFIB%232-web-June15.pdf

Beyond the Sum of Its Parts, Combining Financial Instruments for Impact and Efficiency

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), carbon finance, and the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) constitute the bulk of dedicated funding for low-carbon development. To achieve the largest possible impact, practitioners must learn to combine these resources in the same project or program in order to both reduce transaction costs and maximize synergies. This Issues Brief considers six projects that are using resources from one or all of these sources in combination with development finance to advance low-carbon development. It lays out a conceptual basis for how GEF, carbon finance, and CTF resources can be fit together to make a wider range of mitigation projects financially and economically attractive.

KEYWORDS: Development, Climate, Finance

SOURCE: http://beta.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/documents/DCFIB3-web.pdf

Climate Finance in the Urban context

Cities and the people who live in them account for more than 80 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, more than 80 percent of the overall annual global costs of adaptation to climate change are estimated to be borne by urban areas. This Issues Brief looks at potential financing opportunities and costs of mitigation and adaptation in the urban context. Wide-ranging potential sources for finance for climate action are described, and suggestions are made for more- effective responses to climate investment challenges in cities.

KEYWORDS: Development, Climate, Finance

SOURCE: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2010/11/21/000333038_20101121222743/Rendered/PDF/578590revised0101Public10DCFIB0141A.pdf