Budgeting for a Greener Planet

Feb 16, 2018

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 primarily through government budget systems. Ensuring that these funds are managed effectively and with full accountability is essential.

While there have been efforts to assess the formal accountability systems of countries that will receive, generate, and manage substantial climate change funds, there has been little work to date that assesses the roles, relationships between and among, and interactions of the range of state and nonstate actors in the climate finance “accountability ecosystem.”

In response, the United Nations Development Programme’s Governance of Climate Change Finance Team partnered with the International Budget Partnership to assess these systems in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and the Philippines. This report establishes a climate finance accountability framework, and examines the the “accountability ecosystems” in which government, formal oversight institutions, civil society, citizens, and media in each country engage in decision making and monitoring of the use of public funds for climate action. It aims to draw lessons and guide actors — both global and domestic — on entry points to strengthen systems.

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