Financing decarbonisation

Climate action, in the form of mitigation and adaptation, requires considerable investment. It is helpful to compare the current overall expenditure with those on other activities and to highlight differences between the public and private sectors. Also important is a comparison of spend in different sectors and in countries and regions around the world. There is also investment by households and individuals in a bottom-up response to climate change, indicating their willingness to take responsibility for their carbon emissions. Sometimes the state provides appropriate incentives for the individual to act and in other cases voluntary action is taken. A good understanding of the global, regional, and national spend on climate measures provides important context to the potential resources released, were a community of individuals to become more active in meeting their annual and lifetime carbon debt.