Bilateral cooperation in climate finance

German funding for international climate finance is largely implemented as climate-relevant projects and programs of the bilateral development cooperation (DC) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the implementing agencies of development cooperation. Its bilateral instruments include general, climate-relevant:

  • technical cooperation (TC) is mainly carried out by the “Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit” (GIZ) and
  • financial cooperation (FC) is carried out by the KfW development bank.

In addition, there are funds from special initiatives and the Initiative for Climate and Environmental Protection (IKU). The BMZ also allocates funds to political foundations, church organizations and associations, which use them to finance climate-related projects and programs together with partners in developing countries.

The BMZ’s bilateral climate financing thus feeds off the general budget lines for development cooperation – and is therefore also often difficult to quantify in advance (or for the current year). While there are usually planned figures for climate-related development cooperation, they do not represent binding targets. In any case, it is hardly possible to make a clear distinction between measures that contribute to climate protection and adaptation to climate change and those that promote other development-relevant aspects. In terms of planning and implementation, most of the projects and programs do not differ from those of traditional development cooperation, but contribute to climate protection and adaptation to climate change in different ways.