Knowing What You Spend: A guidance note for governments to track climate change finance in their budgets

Climate Budget Tagging (CBT) is one of a set of climate related finance tools designed to help countries mainstream climate change in public financial management in order to mitigate the economic, social and environmental impacts of climate change. This guidance note is intended for government agencies responsible for climate finance within Ministries of Finance, Ministries of Planning, or climate change policy making bodies (e.g. Climate Change Commissions, Ministry of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment and Forests etc.) that wish to set up a Climate Budget Tagging (CBT) system or strengthen an existing one. The note focuses on the design of a CBT system that is grounded in government financial management and, as such, covers public sector expenditure – while acknowledging that a significant portion of climate relevant spending occurs in the private sector and non-governmental organizations.