Preface
All countries now face enormous challenges posed by climate change. The consequences of continued greenhouse gas emissions are dire. According to AfDB (2022), this is especially true for countries in the Global South that are both more affected and more vulnerable to climate change at the same time as they have less capacity to adapt. The realization that a low-carbon transition needs to be implemented also in countries in the Global South is well established and reflected in most countries’ ratification of the Paris Agreement and in their Nationally Determined Contributions. In effect, most countries in the Global South are now confronted with the fastest and most dramatic transformation of their economies that they have ever experienced – or at least they would need to be.
The low-carbon transition in the Global South needs to be guided by research since such a transition is an inherently knowledge-intensive process. This is why the Sustainable Inclusive Economies (SIE) Division of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has identified this area as particularly interesting to support. This report is commissioned by SIE as part of an initiative to develop an actionable research agenda that IDRC can support to achieve a low-carbon transition with gender equity in the Global South.
Mobilizing New Climate Investment Models is part of the Research Agenda for Low Carbon Transition and Gender Equity in the Global South series of papers. The consortium that is working on this series is global and consists of 60 researchers from a multitude of universities and institutions. This particular paper is written by Jonathan Phillips, Victoria Plutshack, Ipsita Das, Jackson Ewing and Abhay Rao, all affiliated with the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke University, Durham.
Mobilizing New Climate Investment Models presents an in-depth analysis of the supply and demand side of climate finance. It presents a snapshot of climate finance flows and shows that there is a big gap between what is needed and what is being received. We will then revise the paper for validation by policy makers and senior civil servants in the Global South. Based on the reviews and validations, we plan to prepare final versions of both the paper and the accompanying High-Level Research Agenda by March 2023. The ambition is that these papers will be useful both for donors and research institutions in supporting an even greater contribution by research to a much needed low-carbon transition with gender equity in the Global South in this crucial Decade of Action.
Gunnar Köhlin
Director, Environment for Development
