Climate finance after Paris

This chapter examines the role of public and private finance in facilitating greenhouse gas abatement and climate mitigation. We review the evolution of the international regime, with some emphasis on the Green Climate Fund. We discuss the history and future of green finance's contributions to greenhouse gas abatement, including public funding of transportation, utility financing of energy efficiency, the use of revenues from pollution taxes and allowance trading programs, and the use of COVID recovery funds to aid carbon abatement. We devote special attention to green bonds, a newly emerging private financing mechanism. We also highlight the potential for climate finance to advance environmental justice. This chapter concludes that we have made progress on climate finance, but that achieving the mitigation and adaptation goals set out by the Paris Agreement requires a major increase in climate finance.