Climate Investments: Definitions and Documentation Principles

A plethora of national and international studies and statistics have generated a wide range of approaches to defining and quantifying climate investments. Despite this, comprehensive and representative records of such investments are few and far between, and there can be considerable differences between the terminology, documentation principles and methods already developed. These inconsistencies have led to very different assessments of the types and scope of investment necessary to achieve climate goals. Yet clearly identifying climate investments and creating a common basis for data collection is a prerequisite to increase the allocative efficiency and to minimise the costs of protecting the climate in the medium term. This study therefore provides a review of the terminological and data-capturing principles currently applied in documenting climate investments together with a systematic overview of common features and differences in data collection methods. THis analysis shows that the context of the analysis and the perspective from which it is approached have an important influence on terminological and conceptual understanding. Finally, an independent concept of climate investments is developed that can be used to effectively document contributions to climate protection in all economic sectors.