This dataset contains bilateral commitment data on aid in support of environment sustainability and aid to biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation and desertification from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Creditor Reporting System (CRS) database.

In addition to bilateral flows, since 2013 the DAC also collects data on climate components from the main Multilateral Development Banks and Rio-marked data for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Adaptation Fund.

Bilateral flows

In their reporting to the DAC CRS, donors are requested to indicate for each activity whether or not it targets environment and the Rio Conventions (biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation and desertification). A scoring system of three values is used, in which aid activities are "marked" as targeting environment as the "principal objective" or a "significant objective", or as not targeting the objective.

The environment marker identifies activities that are "intended to produce an improvement in the physical and/or biological environment of the recipient country, area or target group concerned" or "include specific action to integrate environmental concerns with a range of development objectives through institution building and/or capacity development". A large majority of activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions fall under the DAC definition of "aid to environment". The Rio markers permit their specific identification.



Watch out for double-counting!

The same activity can be marked for several objectives, e.g. climate change mitigation and biodiversity. These overlaps reflect that the three Rio Conventions are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. However, care needs to be taken not to double-count the amounts when compiling the total for aid in support of more than one Convention: biodiversity-, climate change- and desertification-related aid should not be added up as this can result in double or triple-counting.