Background

The Caribbean is among the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, facing adaptation investment needs estimated at over USD 100 billion, approximately one-third of the region’s annual economic output. At the same time, access to climate finance is often limited and fragmented. Many countries continue to encounter challenges in tracking climate finance inflows, reporting effectively, and mobilizing the resources required to advance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).

Climate Finance Units (CFUs), typically situated within ministries of finance, planning, or environment, are emerging as practical institutional arrangements to strengthen the coordination, monitoring, and mobilization of climate finance. Several regional initiatives are contributing to this momentum, including:

• The Caribbean Development Bank’s pilot Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system to help Borrowing Member Countries track climate finance from public, private, domestic, and international sources.

• The Caribbean chapter of the Climate Finance Access Network (CFAN), launched to embed climate finance advisors in national institutions and reinforce long-term capacity for securing and deploying climate funds.

Countries such as Belize, Saint Lucia, and Jamaica are already piloting CFUs. However, further exchange of experiences and institutional strengthening is needed to maximize their role in tracking finance flows and leveraging both domestic and international resources.

Objective

The webinar, co-organized by the UN Climate Change Regional Collaboration Centre Caribbean and UNEP CBIT-GSP – Caribbean Network, in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Climate Analytics, Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub (CFAH), Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), NDC Partnership, aims to highlight the role of CFUs in strengthening national climate finance architecture in the Caribbean, with a focus on:

1. Tracking climate finance flows to enhance transparency, accountability, and alignment with NDC/NAP implementation.

2. Mobilizing resources by improving access to international climate funds, leveraging private investment, and exploring innovative instruments such as blended finance, debt-for-climate swaps, and green bonds.

Expected Outcomes

Participants will gain:

• Greater awareness of the value of establishing or strengthening CFUs.

• Insights from Caribbean and international experiences on institutional set-ups, governance, and coordination mechanisms.

• Identification of opportunities for regional collaboration, capacity-building, and technical support.

• Recommendations for advancing CFU effectiveness in climate finance tracking and resource mobilization.

Target Audience

• Officials from Ministries of Finance and Environment in the Caribbean.

• Climate finance advisors working on climate finance and transparency.

• International partners and donors.