From Pledges to Projects: How to build a digital platform to manage climate finance

The technology to track and manage climate finance already exists. But it’s not being deployed and used effectively. Incentives aren’t aligned and structural barriers block data and information sharing across government, donors, and communities on the ground.

New high-level commitments are multiplying, including the Belém Action Mechanism launched at COP30, but commitments only matter if they can be translated into something line ministries, private investors, development banks, and citizens and civil society stakeholders can understand and act on. The data infrastructure around climate finance is not designed to follow money through country systems and project delivery. Even when data exists, it rarely connects clearly to impact on the ground. There is no common methodology for what counts as “climate” finance, and fewer than 20 countries have climate budget tagging systems in place.

So we set out to understand why — and what it would take to fix it. We conducted extensive desk research and interviewed climate experts from civil society, government, multilateral institutions, and the private sector. This Business Requirements Document shares what we learned and sets out the blueprint for a national digital platform that turns climate finance from high-level pledges into projects that get delivered. It draws on our review of existing investment tracking platforms and on OCP’s experience running the coordination office for DREAM — Ukraine’s first-of-its-kind end-to-end public investment management system. If you’re a government or funder ready to take the next step, we want to hear from you.