Initiatives

Climate Finance

Opaque and often unaccountable budget processes make climate finance a serious concern for those working on climate justice.

Our research and advocacy has focused on ensuring climate financing is used to mitigate climate impacts on underserved people and communities.

About Climate Finance

International institutions and national governments have mobilized hundreds of billions of dollars to mitigate the causes and adapt to the effects of climate change and build resilience to droughts, storms and food shortages that are hitting harder and more often every year. This funding, if managed well, can make a real difference in the lives of those who are disproportionately impacted, such as women, farmers, indigenous people and coastal communities. However, public participation in the creation of climate budgets has been limited to date.

Without meaningful public participation and engagement, it is difficult for governments to provide effective climate financing that aligns with citizen priorities, leaving the average person to fend for themself when responding and adapting to climate change. There must also be abundant engagement between those from civil society, the executive, legislature and audit institutions. This engagement should happen throughout the budget cycle and can be in both formal and informal spaces. Civil society organizations have a critical role to play because they possess knowledge about community needs and potential solutions critical to government decision making. However, to play this vital role effectively, they need access to information on how the government is raising and spending funds for climate action and opportunities to participate in budget processes.

  • Supported partners in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal to use budget analysis and advocacy strategies to better track and analyze their governments’ climate budgets to ensure these funds were spent effectively and efficiently and reached at-risk communities.
  • Created the “People, Planet and Public Finance” podcast series to share new research and analysis, as well as innovative approaches and promising models for responding to the climate-related fiscal accountability challenge.

Where We Work in this Area

The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), with IBP's help, ensured that 90,000 students benefitted from scholarships in FY2021-22.

India

IBP has partnered and supported budget advocacy in India for more than 15 years. From 2018-2022, we fostered powerful coalitions to improve access to critical government programs meant for Dalit and Adivasi communities.

South Africa

In South Africa, we fostered a powerful coalition of a dozen organizations that are part of the Asivikelane initiative, which has participants from over 500 informal settlements across 10 municipalities.
Members of the fisherfolk group KNTI at a rally where government members and fisherfolk came together to discuss budget credibility issues facing fisherfolk.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, we fostered powerful coalitions to support the national fisherfolk union and a grassroots organization representing the urban poor to demand accountable delivery of services. Together we have improved access to fuel subsidies for fisherfolk and cash assistance for urban poor households respectively.
TAKE ACTION

Demand Accountability

Join us and our many international and national partners to urge governments to:
  1. Establish meaningful, inclusive spaces to engage the public in budget processes.
  2. Curtail executive overreach and empower legislators and auditors’ oversight roles.
  3. Disclose more and better budget information.
  4. Sustain progress by institutionalizing accountability reforms.

Add your voice
Featured resources
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Blogs

Climate finance transparency is vital – and so is avoiding greenwashing

Dec 10, 2021
Murray Petrie
gender-climate-bangladesh-cover
Learning

Gender-responsive climate change budgeting in Bangladesh: Exploring opportunities toward an inclusive climate resilient future

Apr 06, 2021
Tanjir Hossain, Anhara Rabbani, Md. Tariqul Hasan Rifat
Poor and marginalized people, especially women, are most at risk from climate hazards. Given the role of public budgets in climate financing, we are working to ensure governments comply with international standards for transparency and accountability when dispensing billions in climate funds.
Learning, Special Projects

People, Planet and Public Finance Podcast

Jun 16, 2019
typhoon-yolanda
Blogs

Opening Budgets to Fight Climate Change

Jun 13, 2017
Delaine McCullough
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Related Resources
Paper

Public Participation in Climate Budgeting

Effective climate budgeting requires meaningful participation and systematic public engagement. Without these it is difficult for governments to provide climate financing that aligns with household priorities, and households will continue to spend large amounts of money responding and adapting to climate change without, and sometimes against the flow of, public financing.
Paper

Climate Finance Accountability Synthesis Report

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Significant amounts of finance are and will be required to enable governments around the globe to support adaptation and mitigation efforts. There is growing interest among government, civil society, the private sector and international actors on how to mobilize finance, from both international […]

A Guide to Analyzing the Public Budget for Climate Action: A Citizen’s Proposal

Fulfilling national and international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as adapting territories, societies, and ecosystems to a changing climate, will require the mobilization and management of significant financial resources. While ensuring that developed countries provide financial resources to developing countries is critical, as is stipulated in the United Nations Framework Convention on […]
Learning

Tackling gender inequality and climate change through the budget: A look at gender-responsive climate change budgeting in Bangladesh and Mexico

It has become increasingly critical for countries to adopt a gender-responsive climate change budgetary approach to support gender equity while mitigating the adverse effects of global warming. Alongside our partners, we have undertaken research on how governments are incorporating gender-responsive climate change budget approaches. This study aims to accelerate progress toward more effective ways of […]
Learning, Special Projects

People, Planet and Public Finance Podcast

More and more, governments are mobilizing additional funds to deal with climate change and its impacts. For this investment to make a difference, it is vital that leaders ensure that the use of these funds is efficient, effective, and clear of corruption. To ensure the funds are used properly, engaging people and civil society in […]
Paper

Budgeting for a Greener Planet

February 2018 | by the International Budget Partnership and United Nations Development Programme Funds to respond to climate change are likely to be the single largest source of development finance for the foreseeable future, with global estimates upwards of US$100 billion a year. Whether from domestic sources or international assistance, these funds will be managed […]
Paper

Tracking Climate Change Funding: Learning from Gender-Responsive Budgeting

This paper looks at what budgeting for climate change initiatives can learn from gender-responsive budgeting (GRB). It draws on the author’s experience of working on GRB and child-friendly budgeting in more than 30 countries and advising even more countries long distance on these topics. A separate companion paper describes in more technical detail the approach […]

Budget Brief No.11 – Governing Climate Finance: The Importance of Reporting Guidelines and Review Mechanisms to Ensure Transparency and Accountability

THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS BRIEF ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF THE IBP Governing Climate Finance: The Importance of Reporting Guidelines and Review Mechanisms to Ensure Transparency and Accountability Athena Ballesteros and Vivek Ramkumar The international community has come together to address the challenge of global climate change.  Through the United Nations […]
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The need to “double mainstream” gender and climate in public finance

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Latest Event
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An End to Debt Déjà Vu

October 12, 2023
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Marrakech time (WEST)