What Gets Measured Gets Financed: Climate finance funding flows and opportunities

Climate change poses a singular threat to humanity, and to The Rockefeller Foundation's 109-year mission of promoting its well-being throughout the world. To meet our mission today, we must directly confront climate change.One of the biggest obstacles to achieving net zero emissions globally by 2050 is the lack of financing from public and private sources for climate change mitigation and adaptation. This climate financing gap is made more acute by the use of inconsistent definitions, methodologies, and disclosures. Without standardized taxonomies, it can be difficult — if not impossible — for catalytic investors to trace financing flows and pinpoint gaps they can meaningfully target their dollars to.This report provides industry practitioners with a comprehensive view of how climate finance needs are evolving relative to flows and identifies where the most critical gaps in climate finance data reporting are, and where the need for taxonomic standards is most urgent.The report also provides guidance for how the finance gap can be overcome and recommends that all key actors in the climate finance ecosystem play bigger, more active roles. Governments will need to trace climate finance needs, flows, and outcomes for necessary structural interventions such as tax incentives and subsidies. Corporations need to disaggregate climate finance initiatives rather than rolling costs and allocations under business operations in order for investments and performance to be accurately assessed. And market-return-seeking investors need to make the end use of their proceeds more transparent, so that others in the climate finance arena can better discern the gaps and needs that remain