The 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) adopted an historic climate agreement in Paris. Achieving the goals under the Paris Agreement hinges on implementation of the countries’ nationally determined contributions and various mechanisms under the Convention through greater investment. A drastic shift in finance that flows from “brown” to “green” will be essential at both global and national levels.

Analysis in this report draws on multiple information sources. Data on development finance flows were obtained from the OECD Creditor Reporting System (CRS) Aid Activities Database, which is maintained by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Information on climate targets and policies was retrieved from publicly available national policy documents, which directly and indirectly relate to climate actions (i.e. climate change mitigation and adaptation). The data sources also include a number of project-level documents prepared by bilateral and multilateral providers of finance. These include members of the OECD DAC, multilateral development banks (MDBs) and international climate funds, as well as some South-South co-operation and non-DAC member contributions.

Finance is crucial to enable an effective and progressive global response to the urgent threat of climate change. Bilateral and multilateral development co-operation partners committed USD 3.3 billion of development finance per year over 2013 and 2014 to climate actions (mitigation or adaptation, or both) in 11 countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Compared to other regions in the world and in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita levels, the commitment to these countries represented a relatively fair share of development finance for their climate actions.

This chapter provides an overview of 11 countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA), which are the scope of this report, in terms of their economies, populations and climate change related targets. This chapter also summarises the intended nationally determined contributions that the EECCA countries submitted in time for the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Finally, this chapter outlines a set of recommendations for policy development that the EECCA countries and their development co-operation partners could pursue to scale-up finance for climate finance in the region, based on the results of the analysis detailed in Chapters 2, 3 and 4.

This chapter examines the climate-related development finance committed to the Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) region in the two years between 2013-14. Multilateral and bilateral sources committed about USD 3.3 billion of climate-related development finance per year to the region during this period. The analysis also illustrates a great potential to mainstream climate concerns into development finance, especially for agriculture, forestry, industry, mining, water and transport sectors. It is primarily based on datasets from the OECD Creditor Reporting System Aid Activities Database. The Reader’s Guide offers further information on data sources and the analytical framework.

Enhancing “readiness” of the countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) to access scaled-up international climate finance is essential to accelerate their transition towards low-carbon and climate-resilient economies. This chapter explores ways in which the EECCA countries and their partners can first assess the countries’ readiness to access climate finance, and then identify possible areas for improvement. Based on the review of existing climate finance readiness programmes implemented by several development co-operation partners, this chapter outlines key questions to assess the EECCA countries’ climate finance readiness. These questions fall into the following four categories: (a) planning targets, strategies and policies; (b) building institutional capacities; (c) developing programmes and projects; and (d) implementing, monitoring, evaluating and learning.

This chapter summarises the country-specific reports on climate-related development finance for 11 countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA). The full country reports are available on the website of the OECD-hosted GREEN Action Programme [www.oecd.org/environment/outreach/eap-tf.htm]. Each report analyses the country’s climate targets and priority sectors/areas for climate actions; development finance flows to support climate actions in the EECCA region; and in-country enabling environments, such as laws, regulations, institutional arrangements and domestic financing mechanisms.