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Climate finance: Earning trust through consistent reporting: Appendix 2

Glossary of climate finance terms

appendix 2
Contents
 

Adaptation:

Where a project seeks to reduce the vulnerability of human or natural systems to current and/or expected impacts of climate change.
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Biennial Transparency Report:

see Enhanced Transparency Framework
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Case-by-case approach:

A way of assessing the climate share of a project that involves estimating the percentage of activities (to be) performed within the project that are relevant to climate, in order to give a precise estimate of the climate finance associated with the project.
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Climate share:

The percentage of a project's funding that is counted as climate finance.
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CMA:

Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement. This is the governing body for the Paris Agreement, that meets annually during the same period as the COP. Signatories to the convention that are not also signatories to the Paris Agreement can observe, but not contribute to decisions at the CMA.
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COP:

Conference of the Parties. This is the primary decision-making body of the Convention. All Parties to the Convention are represented and meet annually to review the implementation of the Convention and related matters.
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Copenhagen Accord:

Document produced at COP 15 (not universally agreed or passed into law) in which the goal to provide and mobilise US$100 billion annually in climate finance for developing countries was first stated. Available at: https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/cop15/eng/l07.pdf
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Development finance:

This is understood differently in different contexts, but in this report broadly refers to finance provided by the public sector for the support of development objectives (such as economic growth or poverty reduction) in developing countries, or global public goods.
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‘Developed/Developing’ country:

These are categories of countries referred to frequently in both COP texts and the Paris Agreement, but not clearly defined. ‘Developed’ and ‘developing’ countries have different obligations under these texts, especially in terms of financial support provided, but this relies on countries’ self-identification.
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Enhanced Transparency Framework:

This is a reporting framework introduced by the Paris Agreement that requires Parties to submit ‘Biennial Transparency Reports’ from 2024. For more information, see the UNFCCC’s ‘Reference Manual for the Enhanced Transparency Framework’, available at https://unfccc.int/documents/268136
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Mitigation:

Where a project contributes to stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere by promoting efforts to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions or enhance greenhouse gas sequestration.
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New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG):

This is a new goal on climate finance to be agreed prior to 2025 by the CMA, set from a floor of US$100 billion
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Paris Agreement:

International treaty on climate change adopted in 2015.
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Pearson Commission:

Commission established by the World Bank in 1969 that initially proposed the 0.7% of GNI (referred to as GNP at the time) target for provision of ODA, later adopted as a UN resolution.
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Policy marker:

These are variables in the OECD CRS data that allow donors to denote the degree to which projects focus on a range of issues, such as gender, climate and trade. Each is based on a three-point scale (no focus, significant focus or principal focus on the topic in question). The Rio markers are an example.
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Principal objective (OECD Policy markers):

An objective that is fundamental to the design of a project, and without which it would not have taken place.
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Purpose code:

Five-digit code used in the OECD CRS data to denote the detailed sectoral focus of a project (e.g. 21030 is rail transport).
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Rio markers:

An OECD system that uses a three-point scale to identify climate focus. This system was originally intended to be qualitative but has since been adapted by many countries to form the basis of UNFCCC reporting.
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Significant objective (OECD Policy markers):

An objective that is important to the design of a project, indicating that the project has been substantially altered to address the objective, but still would have taken place without it in some form.
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Technical Expert Dialogue:

Part of the Ad-hoc Work Programme on the NCQG that was established by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA).
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