Indicator 7.a.1 International financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy research and development and renewable energy production, including in hybrid systems

Indicator 7.a.1: International financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy research and development and renewable energy production, including in hybrid systems

Target 7.a: By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

Definition:

The flows are covered through two complementary sources.

OECD: The flows covered by the OECD are defined as all official loans, grants and equity investments received by countries on the DAC List of ODA Recipients from foreign governments and multilateral agencies, for the purpose of clean energy research and development and renewable energy production, including in hybrid systems extracted from the OECD/DAC Creditor Reporting System (CRS) with the following sector codes:

• 23210 Energy generation, renewable sources – multiple technologies - Renewable energy generation programmes that cannot be attributed to one single technology (codes 23220 through 23280 below). Fuelwood/charcoal production should be included under forestry 31261.

• 23220 Hydro-electric power plants - Including energy generating river barges.

• 23230 Solar energy for centralised grids

• 23231 Solar energy for isolated grids and standalone systems

• 23232 Solar energy – thermal applications

• 23240 Wind energy - Wind energy for water lifting and electric power generation.

• 23250 Marine energy - Including ocean thermal energy conversion, tidal and wave power.

• 23260 Geothermal energy - Use of geothermal energy for generating electric power or directly as heat for agriculture, etc.

• 23270- Biofuel-fired power plants Use of solids and liquids produced from biomass for direct power generation. Also includes biogases from anaerobic fermentation (e.g. landfill gas, sewage sludge gas, fermentation of energy crops and manure) and thermal processes (also known as syngas); waste fired power plants making use of biodegradable municipal waste (household waste and waste from companies and public services that resembles household waste, collected at installations specifically designed for their disposal with recovery of combustible liquids, gases or heat). See code 23360 for non-renewable waste-fired power plants.

• 23410 Hybrid energy electric power plants

• 23631 Electric power transmission and distribution (isolated mini-grids)

Research and development of energy efficiency technologies and measures is captured under CRS sector code 23182 on Energy research. The above flows also include technical assistance provided to support production, research and development as defined above.

IRENA: The flows covered by IRENA are defined as all additional loans, grants and equity investments received by developing countries (defined as countries in developing regions, as listed in the UN M49 composition of regions) from all foreign governments, multilateral agencies and additional development finance institutions (including export credits, where available) for the purpose of clean energy research and development and renewable energy production, including in hybrid systems. These additional flows cover the same technologies and other activities (research and development, technical assistance, etc.) as listed above and exclude all flows extracted from the OECD/DAC CRS.

Million United States Dollars (USD) at constant prices for a base year. The base year for the constant prices and exchange rates is updated every year and it usually has a two-year lag behind the publication cycle. (e.g., the 2020 cycle would report 2018 constant prices)

The OECD/DAC has been collecting data on official and private resource flows from 1960 at an aggregate level and 1973 at an activity level through the Creditor Reporting System (CRS data are considered complete from 1995 for commitments at an activity level and 2002 for disbursements). Data are reported on an annual calendar year basis by statistical reporters in national administrations (aid agencies, Ministries of Foreign Affairs or Finance, etc).

IRENA’s data on financial flows from public sources in support of renewable energy are available in IRENA’s Public Renewable Energy Investment Database. IRENA collects these data from a wide range of publicly available sources, including the databases and annual reports of all of the main development finance institutions and 20 other bilateral and multilateral agencies investing in renewable energy. The database is updated annually and (at end-2021) covers public renewable energy investment flowing to 41 developed countries and 109 developing countries, for the period 2000-2020. As new publicly-funded financial institutions start investing in renewable energy, the IRENA database will expand to include these new investors over time.

See above

Data in the Creditor Reporting System are available from 1973. However, the data coverage is considered complete since 1995 for commitments at an activity level and 2002 for disbursements. At present, flows to clean energy research and development are only partially covered by the database and a few other areas (e.g. off-grid electricity supply, investments in improved cookstove projects) may be covered only partially.

The IRENA database currently only covers financial institutions that have invested a total of USD 400 million or more in renewable energy. The process of continuous improvement of the database includes verifying the data against data produced by the multilateral development banks for climate finance reporting and by comparing the data with other independent reporting by international development finance agencies.

The OECD flows are calculated by taking the total official flows (ODA and OOF) from DAC member countries, multilateral organisations and other providers of development assistance to the sectors listed above. The IRENA (additional) flows are calculated by taking the total public investment flows from IRENA’s Public Renewable Energy Investment Database and excluding: domestic financial flows; international flows to countries outside developing regions; international flows to multilateral recipients not elsewhere specified; and flows reported by OECD (as described above). The flows are commitments measured in current United States Dollars (USD).

Flows are tracked by individual commitment or activity level. When there are duplicate commitments between the OECD and IRENA databases, these are excluded from the IRENA database.

The flows are converted to constant USD at a base year that normally has a two-year lag behind the publication year. The computation uses the DAC deflator methodology explained by the OECD on their web site.

2022-03-31

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

Not applicable

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