Around the world, nations are striving to use increasingly scarce resources more productively, meet energy security goals, and reach economic growth targets, all while reducing climate risk. These are complex and urgent challenges, and policy plays a critical role in addressing them.
Since our inception in late 2009, Climate Policy Initiative has been working hard to answer pressing questions posed by decision makers through in-depth, objective analysis on some of the most significant energy and land use policies around the world, with a particular focus on finance.
As we continue to tackle these important and complex issues, your feedback on how we’re doing is extremely important. We hope you’ll help us reflect on the past, as we ring in a new year, by participating in a five-minute survey about our work.
We also hope you’ll take a look at some of our latest analysis, including the following projects related to climate finance:
Climate change investment totals $359 billion worldwide
Global investment in climate change plateaued in 2012 at roughly the same level as the previous year. Once again the figure falls far short of what’s needed. Read the full Global Landscape of Climate Finance report, check out CPI’s series of data visualizations, or join us for a February 27 webinar on the report.
New financing mechanisms can lower the cost of renewable energy in rapidly developing countries
Renewable energy financing in emerging economies faces particularly daunting challenges, but our analysis identifies policy solutions that could potentially reduce the cost of renewable energy by as much as 30%.
What’s the latest carbon price in California? California Carbon Dashboard offers news and information
CPI launched a new beta website in late 2013 that offers an overview of climate policies, including carbon price tracking and news, in the world’s 14th largest emitter. The California Carbon Dashboard is available at http://www.CalCarbonDash.org.
Case studies highlight lessons learned from climate projects around the world
Through a series of case studies, CPI is examining how public money can catalyze and incentivize private investment in low carbon technologies:
- The World Bank Group’s risk mitigation instruments provide coverage against most risk categories related to climate projects, and particularly those faced by private debt investors. Yet, few risk instruments appear to have been used at a significant scale to support climate related projects.
- Jädraås is a large onshore wind power project in Sweden that received significant financing from PensionDanmark. Given the risk profile of pension companies, the project was made possible by guarantees provided by the Danish export credit agency.
- Pilot Program for Climate Resilience in Nepal is a project implemented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s Climate Investment Funds that aims to engage private actors in building Nepal’s climate resilience.
- Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership is a joint program between Indonesia and Australia and is one of the earliest attempts to develop a model to rehabilitate peat forest, identify and address technical barriers, and inform future rehabilitation activities.
On the land use front, we completed the following work in the last few months:
Brazil can simultaneously protect natural resources while improving agricultural production
Last year, CPI found that Brazil’s monitoring and law enforcement policies have protected an area the size of a small country in forests – saving more carbon than all the renewable energy in Europe combined, each year. We also demonstrated how new policy could hasten the spread of more productive agriculture methods, particularly a no-till farming method that’s been slow to take off.
In December, we expanded these areas of study in work titled “Production and Protection: A First Look at Key Challenges in Brazil.” We found that Brazil has room for enhanced protection of natural resources and growth of agricultural production. From a protection standpoint, the country would benefit from significantly driving up the cost of clearing native vegetation, as well as through the advancement of market-based incentives that promote sustainable practices. From a production standpoint, there is room to increase Brazilian agricultural production via productivity gains, at no apparent cost to environmental conservation. Join our February 25 webinar to learn more.
2014
Looking forward to 2014, CPI plans to continue our focus on finance, as well as our policy and analysis support for nations that are pursuing a protection and production strategy, such as Brazil and Indonesia. We also plan to look at the most effective ways to transition to low-carbon electricity systems around the world.
In addition, CPI will be participating in a new global project on economic prosperity and a safe climate. Former President of Mexico Felipe Calderon and ministers from a diverse group of countries have launched a major new international initiative, the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. Climate Policy Initiative is contributing to the Commission’s flagship project, The New Climate Economy, to analyze and communicate the economic opportunities and risks that arise from climate change.
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