INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS How Much Is 100 Billion US Dollars? Climate Finance between Adequacy and Creative Accounting WOLFGANG STERK, HANS-JOCHEN LUHMANN, FLORIAN MERSMANN June 2011 n Key questions concerning international climate finance remain unresolved. One such question is whether the 100 billion US dollars per year that industrialised countries have pledged to deliver, starting in 2020, refers to gross or net flows. The High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing(AGF) of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki­Moon made an important contribution to the debate but uses relatively conservative assumptions. If these assumptions are modified, providing 100 billion US dollars of net flows per year appears to be eminently viable. n When looking at studies on the climate-related financing needs of developing coun­tries, the only interpretation adequate to the problem and the commitments made under the UNFCCC is one based on net transfers towards the 100 billion US dollar commitment. n The sources assessed by the AGF differ in accordance with the political level – national or international – at which decisions are taken and funds flow into budgets. Governments prefer sources which they can keep under their full control. However, in order to maximise funding reliability it would seem advisable to make the climate regime self-financing by collecting revenues internationally under the aegis of the UNFCCC.