Involvement of the private sector is critical in the global commitment to fight climate change as a means to increase the amount of financial flows into mitigation and adaptation projects, which is particularly necessary in the greater Middle East. However, the current lack of data concerning international private climate finance is a significant obstacle for fully capturing the state of total climate finance in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan (MENA) region, and therefore limits the ability of governments to make informed choices in their attempts of scaling up climate finance. This UfM study aims at providing a better understanding of the required steps for achieving a complete picture of international private climate finance flows in the MENA region, by assessing the opportunities and limitations of the available data and methodologies, as well as laying out the current barriers for tracking and mobilising international private climate finance in the region.
Finally, the study provides concrete recommendations for both tracking and attracting international private climate-related investments. For better tracking, these include the promotion of policies to support investors to report on their climate-related investments, the creation of a standardised system to track international private climate finance, as well as facilitatation of harmonisation and systematisation mechanisms by governments. Another important step to ameliorate the barriers to tracking climate finance at the local level would be for fund providers to develop and adopt indicators that measure the amount of funding that benefit local actors.
Concerning the mobilisation of funding, the report finds that the most efficient way to increase private climate-related investment would be to implement stringent climate policies. Besides this, MENA region countries should support and facilitate business commitment and public-private platforms promoting climate ambition, while at the same time phasing out brown finance and environmentally-harmful subsidies. Moreover, the integration of climate/green finance in all relevant policy areas is imperative.