UN panel admits that climate finance flows from developed to developing countries may be lower than advertised, and experts highlight confusion over green funds’ nature. In 2014, a new study commissioned by the UN’s climate body stated that US$340-650 billion had been invested in green initiatives around the world, and that, of that amount, around $40-175 billion had been used by developed countries to promote initiatives in developing countries. However, a new clarification note recently released by UN officials proves the calculations wrong, and says the estimate “may be closer to the lower bound“; according to the note, the size of climate finance flows to developing countries “is highly uncertain mainly due to uncertainty about the scale of the private flows”. In 2010, emerging and poor economies have been promised $100 billion of climate finance a year by 2020, and during the UN Paris climate summit that will be held in December they will surely ask for proofs that more finance for green projects will be delivered. Another crucial point that will have to be dealt with by the UN is the need to define what climate finance really is, specify a methodology for monitoring flows and ensure that “clean” private investments are audited; according to experts, failure to do so could affect the success of the entire global climate deal that is due to be agreed later this year. As has been pointed out in 2013 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), at the moment there’s no clarity on how to define climate finance, and there are at least 24 different interpretations of the idea of green funding. The gLAWcal Team EPSEI project Tuesday, 10 March 2015 (Source: RTCC)