- The changing climate finance landscape requires coordination and transparency to unify action.
- CPI’s Climate Finance Reform Compass charts milestones for transforming how funds flow and their outcomes.
- Tracking and linking progress to clear goals can help move from rhetoric to results.
Climate finance is undergoing a fundamental shift. With the multilateral system facing rising debt, limited fiscal space, and fragmented global coordination, countries are turning to regional and domestic solutions to bridge their climate finance gaps. This shift reflects the need, and opportunity, for stronger local capital markets and financial institutions in emerging economies that can scale a resilient, just, and effective climate finance architecture that is fit-for-purpose to local contexts.
To build a resilient and effective financial system, climate finance actors must adapt to ensure coordination, transparency, and accountability. The institutions and financial mechanisms that determine how climate finance is mobilized, allocated, and delivered must overcome not just the climate finance deficit but also a systemic disconnect. In a space with a growing number of fragmented actors, the challenge will be to avoid duplicative efforts, harmonize scattered initiatives, and even out progress across institutions and countries.
We have global frameworks, national plans, pledges, coalitions, and financial innovations, but they often operate in silos. Without a common architecture to align actors and efforts, we risk fragmentation that undermines both efficiency and equity. It is vital to track which reforms are advancing, which are stalled, and who needs to drive them. Increased visibility can strengthen trust, spur implementation, and make it easier for civil society, developing countries, and reform-minded institutions to hold the system accountable.
What the Compass tracks—and why it matters
This is where CPI’s Climate Finance Reform Compass comes in. This interactive, iterative tool brings structure, transparency, and accountability to the fragmented landscape by laying out a roadmap that identifies the most impactful reform topics for key global moments such as the G20, World Bank-IMF meetings, and COP negotiations, who can drive them, and how to measure progress. This exercise cuts through reform fatigue and duplication by aligning global and national stakeholders around concrete, outcome-oriented priorities. Actors across the ecosystem need shared tools that provide clarity on what matters most, where reform is lagging, and how collective efforts can be better coordinated to close systemic gaps.
As the official accountability tracker of the Global Climate Finance Framework agreed upon at COP28and with input from the Independent High-Level Expert Group (IHLEG) on Climate Finance, the Compass monitors 32 topics across nine themes, ranging from the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance to MDB reforms.,
For each topic, the Compass defines clear and actionable mid-term (2030) goals and tracks our collective progress toward them. To support action, it also identifies the key decision-makers and supporting actors, including national governments, financial institutions, coalitions, and philanthropic organizations, responsible for advancing each topic. It also highlights relevant initiatives and resources for each topic, helping stakeholders connect with ongoing efforts.
Importantly, the Compass outlines actionable milestones that coincide with critical global events, such as the G20, UN meetings, COP, and World Bank–IMF meetings, where climate and development finance priorities are established.
For example, the Compass identifies milestones across 15 topics for the upcoming Financing for Development Conference (FFD4) in late June. These range from articulating how new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) can support development to how multilateral development banks can leverage first-loss financing to collaborate with other banks.
Such markers aim to drive urgency and focus coordination ahead of key decision points throughout 2025 and beyond. Progress on each reform topic is evaluated and updated regularly to reflect real-time developments in the international finance ecosystem.
By mapping necessary actions, identifying accountable stakeholders, and linking reform to key milestones, the Compass is more than a progress tracker—it is a dynamic roadmap to align efforts, spotlight momentum, and push for greater ambition across the global climate finance landscape.
The Compass is not just another set of recommendations; it is a delivery tool. Designed as a public good, the platform serves as a common reference point for negotiators, policymakers, MDB staff, civil society, and others to coordinate reform agendas and identify shared priorities. As countries and institutions shift focus from abstract pledges to real-world delivery and impact, the Compass offers clarity on what needs to be done, where momentum exists, and where critical gaps remain. Already, it has begun facilitating alignment across diverse actors, helping translate complex reform goals into actionable pathways.
This support is especially timely as the global financial architecture continues to evolve. The shift toward regionalism, local capital market development, and innovative uses of blended finance reflects a broader pivot of global finance toward more localized, tailored solutions that address domestic needs.
The Compass is built for this moment. It helps structure reform dialogues, ensures accountability, and bridges the gap between ambition and implementation. Whether you’re a national government aligning policy with global reforms, an MDB refining strategic direction, or a civil society advocate calling for action, the Compass is interactive, accessible, and useful across the board. It enables users to track reform progress, identify leading and lagging areas, and ensure efforts align with the principles of the Global Climate Finance Framework.
Using the Compass to Shape Reform
Looking ahead, the Compass can inform the Baku-Belem Roadmap and beyond. It can support the Brazilian COP30 Presidency in integrating key initiatives such as the COP28 Global Climate Finance Framework, the COP29 decision on a New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, and IHLEG’s State of Delivery report on the global climate finance agenda. By highlighting tangible, non-negotiated outcomes and avoiding duplication, the Compass will help ensure that efforts outside the formal negotiation process contribute meaningfully to global ambition. The path to reforming the climate finance architecture will not be linear, but the Compass points a clear path to navigating it.
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