CFANadvisors.org
Visit the CFAN website to learn more about the network
Climate Finance Access Network
What Is CFAN?
The Climate Finance Access Network (CFAN) is an agile, demand-driven initiative that offers practical and actionable solutions to developing countries facing capacity constraints in accessing climate finance. It aims to unlock and accelerate climate finance at scale by deploying highly trained climate finance advisors to supplement capacity in developing countries’ governments and direct access entities. These embedded advisors work to develop high-quality projects and to build lasting national capacity that will ultimately maximize adaptation and mitigation outcomes.
Why It Matters
Despite international commitments to increase climate finance flows to the most vulnerable countries, Small Island Developing States and least developed countries struggle to access critical funds. There is an urgent need to improve the way climate finance is accessed and delivered, particularly to the most vulnerable and capacity-constrained countries. Although the volume of climate finance flowing from developed to developing countries has increased, the system for accessing that finance has become highly complex. Most small or low-income countries lack sufficient capacity to navigate the system, resulting in a climate finance bottleneck that is mutually frustrating for those providing finance as well as those trying to access it. CFAN addresses those barriers by placing advisors highly trained in project design and financial structuring directly within host ministries.
What We’re Doing
The CFAN global network brings together developing countries, donors, institutions, and regional and international organizations. To ensure additionality and reduce costs, CFAN partners with existing initiatives and organizations experienced in building in-country climate finance capacity. Partnering with countries and regional Direct Access Entities, CFAN jointly identifies priority climate projects aligned with countries’ international and national climate targets, then hires, trains, and embeds climate finance advisors, ensuring that they can support where their expertise is needed most.
CFAN provides ongoing technical support to advisors while also building long-term capacity on the ground through in-country trainings for civil servants. RMI serves as network coordinator, building on and enhancing the impact of existing climate finance initiatives.
Since 2022, CFAN advisors across the Pacific and Caribbean have built up a global project pipeline representing US$2 billion.
Resources
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CFAN Impact Report 2025
CFAN's annual report
Article
Clean Energy 101: Nationally Determined Contributions
What are NDCs, how are they determined, and why are they important?
Video
CFAN in the Caribbean
In 2024, CFAN advisors united in Barbados to share experiences and lessons learned.
Article
Climate 101: NCQG, The Key Climate Goal Behind the Acronym
A new global climate finance target may be the only way to meet our climate goals — but it must be ambitious
Article
Saint Lucia: The Land, the People, the Light
This small Caribbean Island is taking on climate change and inspiring others to follow.
Article
Shalenie Madho: A Passion for Change
CFAN advisor Shalenie Madho is helping to empower communities and improve livelihoods in Jamaica.
Article
COP28: What Worked, What Didn’t, and What Next?
The UN climate conference delivered more progress than many anticipated but it also neglected major priorities.
Podcast
COP28: Ed's Notebook
Further conversations from this year’s summit.
Press Release
Caribbean countries on the frontline of climate change get lasting support to unlock critical finance
The Climate Finance Access Network launched its Caribbean chapter with support from Canada and the United States.
Article
What to Expect in Dubai: Prioritizing Pragmatic Progress at COP28
The global climate confab commences Nov. 30. RMI’s top COP veterans share their take on what’s needed, and what might — or might not — unfold.
Article
How to Hold Back a Storm: Financing Critical Infrastructure Projects in the Caribbean
Skeeta Carasco, the CFAN climate finance advisor in Saint Lucia, is working to help her country get the support it needs for resilience in the face of climate change.
Article
From Talk to Action: Scaling the Deployment of Renewable Energy Globally
A globally-agreed goal to ‘triple up and double down’ on renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2030 can keep the worst of warming at bay.
Press Release
Pacific countries on the frontline of climate change get support to unlock climate financing for the future of the region
CFAN is partnering with the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to expand capabilities in financing where they are most needed.
Article
Unlocking Climate Resilience in Small Island Nations
CFAN Advisors in the Pacific have spent a year on the frontlines mobilizing millions in climate finance — and more is on the way.
Article
Improving Food Security for Subsistence Farmers
Tens of thousands of Papua New Guineans will have improved agriculture and more resilient communities thanks to RMI’s Climate Finance Access Network.
Article
What Needs to Happen for the New Climate Finance Goal to Succeed?
Progress has been made toward defining the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, but as COP28 approaches, the stakes are getting higher.
Article
Canada announces millions of dollars in new climate finance for developing countries
Article from the National Observer
Article
Voices from the Front Lines: Unlocking Climate Finance in the Pacific
The CFAN team's visit to Fiji
Press Release
CFAN Pacific Advisors Gather in Fiji to Advance Pipeline of Regional Climate Projects
CFAN convened partners, regional stakeholders, and its Pacific advisor cohort in Suva, Fiji to advance a diverse pipeline of regional climate projects.
Report
Accessing Climate Finance
Challenges and Opportunities for Small Island Developing States
Article
New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) Process
Are We Asking the Right Questions?
Article
Climate Action through Local Ownership
Tackling global climate challenges by localizing climate finance and clean energy skills
Article
CFAN in Canary Media
Canary Media writes about the 'cruelty' of the climate finance system and how CFAN has been designed to address it.
Press Release
Canada Announces CA$9.5 Million for the Climate Finance Access Network
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that Canada will contribute CA$9.5 million to CFAN to support developing nations in accessing funding to fight climate change.
Brochure
Country Demand Brochure
Results from a survey aimed at assessing demand for Climate Finance advisors, identifying priority activities for advisors, and describing the profile of the advisor.
Program Document
A group of organizations has established the Climate Finance Access Network (CFAN), which will increase the number and caliber of in-country climate finance advisors.
Article
RMI Introduces the Climate Finance Access Network at COP25, 2019
Report
Market Testing a Climate Finance Access Service, 2018
Article
Unsnarling Climate Finance Gridlock, 2018