CPI is compiling and standardizing data on climate finance needs from a wide variety of sources to provide the most comprehensive overview of the size of the climate finance gap to date.​ While climate finance increased to reach an all-time high of almost USD 1.3 trillion per year in 2021/2022, this amount still falls dramatically short of the total required.

Accurately assessing the size of this global climate finance gap can enable decision-makers to mobilize finance effectively, quickly, and to where it is most needed.

Navigating the data

CPI is supporting a collective understanding of the climate finance needed to align to a 1.5°C pathway.

Various institutions have analyzed the finance needed for climate action to keep global temperature rises within 1.5°C on pre-industrial levels. At the same time, countries’ official climate targets, such as their Nationally Determined Contributions, inform on the finance needed to realize their ambitions. These different actors use widely varying methodologies and assumptions in their calculations, leading to dramatically different estimates of investment needs. 

To clarify the global climate finance needs landscape, CPI has developed a novel approach to capturing all of these needs estimates in a clear and digestible manner. Coupled with our wider tracking and analysis of climate finance flows, this can help identify the largest climate finance gaps, track progress against climate targets, and better inform decision-makers and financial institutions on how to increase the speed, scale, and quality of climate finance.

CPI’s two-pronged approach

CPI distinguishes between two types of needs to keep global temperature rises within 1.5°C: top-down and bottom-up. While there is no globally accepted definition or methodology for calculating “climate finance needs” to date, CPI assesses the current landscape by presenting available estimates as ranges of required investments rather than single values. Our goal is not to validate the approach and assumptions of different models but to present a comprehensive and impartial overview of available needs estimates to date.