Delivering climate finance to fund local-level adaptation is a difficult challenge. In our latest Conversation on Climate Change Adaptation, Acclimatise spoke with Paul Steele, Chief Economist at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Paul, explains that just 10% of international public climate finance reaches the local level. This is particularly concerning for adaptation initiatives, which are heavily dependent on funding reaching the local-level programmes and projects.

This is complicated by the fact that there is currently a very poor level of good data available about how much climate finance makes it to the local level. “The bottom line is… we need more accountability and transparency around climate finance.” Paul said, “there is a lot of tracking about the amount of international public finance goes from North to South, but in terms of how much of that money is reaching the local level, there’s no clear data.”

Paul and IIED call on G20 finance ministers to set targets for the amount of climate finance that reaches the local level, in a similar way to the governments of the US and Nepal.