Making climate finance work in agriculture
This paper (PDF) by World Bank explores the intersection between climate and agriculture finance by promoting dialogue about these topics and suggesting innovative approaches. The paper was produced as a background document for the 2016 FAO State of Food and Agriculture report. It is based on in-depth analysis of the agriculture and climate finance literature, as well as interviews with key experts representing various stakeholder groups in the agriculture, climate, and finance sectors. The interviews were conducted in order to identify those opportunities and innovations that should be explored to make climate finance work for agriculture. The paper proposes three different avenues to use climate finance to achieve this goal: 1) Designing and adapting innovative mechanisms to leverage additional sources of capital, from both public and private sources, that can be directed towards climate smartinvestments in the agriculture sector. 2) Identifying entry points for directing climate finance into agriculture and for linking FIs to smallholders and agricultural SMEs, including through capacity building and technical assistance. 3) Providing technical assistance to increase investments in agriculture. Finally, this paper presents several suggestions to contribute to the achievement of the ideas presented in this paper, including the need for increased knowledge on innovative financial instruments and mechanisms, bridging information gaps, identifying opportunities, promoting dialogue and cooperation, and designing an action plan to move this agenda forward