Climate Policy Initiative

With deep expertise in policy and finance, CPI works to improve the most important energy and land use practices around the world. Our mission is to help governments, businesses, and financial institutions drive growth while addressing climate risk.

Our Focus

With international expertise in finance and policy, Climate Policy Initiative’s climate finance division helps governments, businesses, and financial institutions drive economic growth while addressing climate change. The program, which is led by Dr. Barbara Buchner, works to drive low carbon, resilient investment at scale.

Our program areas form a stepping stone approach to reaching this goal:

1. The State of Climate Finance – CPI is the leading authority on tracking and analyzing climate finance flows. The Global Landscape of Climate Finance is the most comprehensive inventory of climate change investment available. It is a key tool for policy makers to assess the scale of finance, identify the main actors in the market, reveal investment gaps, and highlight opportunities to mobilize finance to fulfill investment potential. Our work influenced the Paris Agreement, and continues to be used by the UNFCCC. CPI’s robust methodology has also been applied at a national and sectoral level to support the governments of India, Indonesia, and Cote d’Ivoire, as well as by SEforAll to assess progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal to improve access to energy, and by IRENA to track renewable energy investment globally.
2. Effective Finance – CPI advises governments and development finance institutions on the effectiveness of their portfolios, including the UK government’s Department for International Development, the Climate Investment Funds, and the Ministry of Finance in Indonesia. CPI also works to improve public finance interventions in key regions, such as India and Indonesia. For example, in India, we have worked with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Ministry of Finance to illuminate issues around the cost of capital and revise low-cost debt policies.
3. Transformative Finance – CPI supports the implementation of new and transformative finance solutions that mobilize sustainable investment at scale. CPI manages the Lab: a high-level group of public and private investors that identifies, develops, and supports pilots of transformative climate finance instruments. Since its start in 2014, the 26 investment vehicles incubated and launched by the Lab have collectively mobilized over $1 billion in finance for renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, water, and climate resilience projects around the world. The Lab has been endorsed by the governments of India, Brazil, and the G7. CPI’s work managing the Lab was also selected in the top 11 “Best Bets” out of nearly 2000 applicants to the MacArthur 100&Change award. In addition to the Lab, CPI manages USICEF, India’s first project preparation facility for distributed renewable energy, and leads GNI+, a partnership between CPI, Baker McKenzie, and AECOM to provide governments with the best available policy, technical, financial, governance, and legal expertise to support their climate goals.