Landscape of Climate Finance: Promoting debate on climate finance flows in Central Europe

Project

The transition to a low-carbon economy requires an unprecedented redirection of financial flows towards sustainable investments. This project aims to promote a strategic vision for such investment and for rising to the challenge of financing climate action. Its activities are focused on Poland and informed by relevant experiences from Germany and France. Its main objective is to support the exchange of experiences between policy-makers, experts, the business community and civil society in order to improve the assessment and design of domestic climate-finance investment environments. The project also raises stakeholders’ awareness of the financial tools available for achieving climate policy objectives and fostering the transition towards a low-emission economy. Furthermore, the project promotes best practices in the assessment of current investment levels and in the support provided to increase sustainable financial flows, and it explores the potential of investment plan production and forward-looking analysis as a part of national climate strategies.

Background

The project aims to build on the French success of providing a detailed overview of climate finance. It had linked this overview closely with national policy development and planning processes. By doing so, the project fills a knowledge gap present in most EU Member States’ policy discussions concerning the comprehensive and targeted tracking of climate finance flows and the assessment of green investments. The project is addressing this knowledge gap in both Poland and Germany. In France it is building on existing data and focusing on linking results with forward-looking assessments of how to finance investment needs.

The analysis of climate-related investments and financial flows at a granular level can provide the insights needed to better understand their end impact. Additionally, it can better align the incentives contained in the existing EU and Member State climate policy frameworks on fostering investment and leveraging finance. These are the first key steps for supporting associated activities such as the development of low-carbon investment plans and capital-raising plans, which are increasingly seen as essential elements of low-carbon development strategies.