International climate finance is channeled through various sources, instruments, and mechanisms. Multilateral climate funds play a crucial role in supporting countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to a changing climate, and build resilient, sustainable economies. However, processes to access funding from these funds differ very much and are complex. Each fund has a unique focus, governance structure, and set of access requirements.

This section provides an overview of the main multilateral climate funds, relevant publications and tools as well as trainings.

Climate change already impacts the lives of people all over the world. Floods, droughts, extreme heat and storms affect livelihoods and increase the need of adapting to those changes. However, to prepare for and reduce the risks of these impacts, funding is needed, especially in vulnerable countries.

Accessing and managing climate adaptation finance is a challenge due to different barriers. This section provides insights into adaptation finance in general and how to access and manage it. 

Private sector engagement is vital for climate projects. It brings the investment capital, technical expertise, innovation capacity, and operational scale needed to accelerate emissions reductions and climate resilience. However, engaging the private sector is often met by challenges, including uncertain or fragmented policy environments, high upfront costs for low-carbon technologies, difficulties in measuring and verifying climate impacts, and (perceived) risks that climate projects may not deliver predictable financial returns. Additionally, limited incentives, complex regulatory requirements, and insufficient collaboration between governments, communities, and businesses can slow or deter meaningful private sector participation.

This section describes the role the private sector can play in climate projects and how to better engage various private sector actors.

To be able to receive climate finance, countries and institutions require the capacities to access, manage, and effectively use climate finance. Some climate funds have dedicated programs to support developing countries in building their capacities to access and implement climate finance. Public as well as private institutions receive support to strengthen their institutional capacities, governance mechanisms, and planning and programming frameworks towards a transformational long-term climate action agenda. 

This section presents some additional support available for becoming ready for climate finance.