Differences in the Definition and Accounting of Climate Finance and the Political Logic Behind Them:an Analysis from the Perspective of"Constructive Ambiguity"
In November 2023,the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference(COP28)reconfirmed the"commitment of developed countries to provide$100 billion per year in climate finance to developing countries",however,the international community has not yet developed a clear,unified definition of the scope and accounting methodology of the key concept of climate finance.Therefore,this paper combs and analyzes in detail the differenc-es in climate finance definition,category setting and accounting methods of major institutions around the world at present,and puts forward to look at the political logic behind the differences from the perspective of"constructive ambiguity".First,given the transformative nature of climate finance,"constructive ambiguity"can provide more flexibility to deal with uncertainty;Second,"constructive ambiguity"can provide a certain degree of autonomy for countries,and governments can use the"constructive ambiguity"rule to reserve reasonable policy space for their own interests;Furthermore,under the condition that there are a lot of situation uncertainties and incomplete infor-mation in the real environment,the cost of reaching a treaty text that is satisfactory to all parties is huge,and"con-structive ambiguity"can save the cost of negotiating parties to reach an agreement.On the basis of the above analy-sis,this paper puts forward some relevant policy suggestions from the aspects of strengthening international cooper-ation,learning from international experience,implementing national independent contributions,and promoting the balance between mitigation and adaptation.