Sustainable Climate Finance and its Impact
SUFI

About SUFI

International climate policy negotiations are increasingly shifting from emission targets towards financial commitments. A major element of this process is the promise of industrialized countries to mobilize from 2020 on annually 100bn USD to finance mitigation and adaptation projects in developing countries. Despite its relevance, there is remarkably few evidence about the effectiveness of investment support programs and policies. So far, climate finance has been mainly analysed from a rather abstract strategic or fairness perspective. There is a need to improve our understanding of the actual impact of internationally supported climate finance projects on the reduction of carbon emissions and co-benefits such as poverty reduction.

Time frame

01.2019-12.2022

Objective

This research project aims at fully understanding the climate finance project cycle: from allocating resources and incentivizing investments over measuring the impact of these projects, both in terms of mitigated carbon emissions and additional inter-action with the sustainable development goals, to the link between investment strategies and project effectiveness.

Structure

We approach the goal to understand climate finance projects by specifically addressing issues related to the financial side of a project in WP1 and issues related to the implementation and impact in WP2. The crosscutting WP3 bridges the two project phases and aims at learning how the financial side influences implementation and impact. WP4 disseminates the findings to related stakeholders.

Tasks

  • Understand climate finance and investment support measures
  • Evaluating the impact of climate finance projects
  • Learning from an integrated perspective
  • Dissemination and Project Management

Results to be delivered

The evidence-based perspective of SUFI will allow giving clearer advice how investment support instruments need to be designed. By studying the implementation of carefully chosen real projects, SUFI will not only identify barriers and obstacles, but also give advice, grounded in theory and empirical findings how regulation and financial products need to be adjusted in order to be effective tools in the transformation process.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Oliver Schenker

Prof. Dr. Björn Vollan

Reference to the funding priority
“economics of climate change”

The Sustainable Climate Finance and its Impact (SUFI) project is a research and development project supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the funding priority “Economics of Climate Change”.

The SUFI research project is organized under “Dialogue on the Economics of Climate Change” – a project financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the focal point of support entitled “Economics of Climate Change II”. This point of support aims at expanding the competencies in the field of climate economics, thereby providing well-grounded and outcome-oriented knowledge. To support this transfer of knowledge and intensify the exchange between research and practice, the point of support is accompanied and supported by the project “Dialogue on the Economics of Climate Change”.