Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action

The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action was launched in 2019 by governments from 26 countries. Today, it has over 100 members. The Coalition’s work is guided by six Helsinki Principles that promote national climate action, especially through fiscal policy and the use of public finance.

The Grantham Research Institute’s role in the Coalition’s work: introduction

The Grantham Research Institute began working with the Coalition at the start when Nicholas Stern, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute, and Amar Bhattacharya, Visiting Professor in Practice at the Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, were appointed as advisers to the Co-Chairs. As a founding institutional partner, the Grantham Research Institute has contributed to a range of the Coalition’s workstreams.

In 2020 and 2021 we led on two reports outlining how Coalition members could advance climate action through economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022–23, the Institute coordinated the development of the Coalition’s flagship guide on ‘Strengthening the Role of Finance Ministries in driving climate action’, under Helsinki Principle (HP) 2 – Share experiences and expertise.

Since 2024 we have also been supporting HP 4 – Mainstream climate in economic policies. The Institute was instrumental in launching https://greenandresilienteconomics.org, which showcases concrete examples, practical guidance and tools from the initiative ‘Economic Analysis for Green and Resilient Transitions’.

Publications we have led for the Coalition under these themes are listed at the end of this page.

Flagship work 1: a Ministry of Finance framework for climate action

A flagship report and guide, Strengthening the Role of Ministries of Finance in Driving Climate Action, was published in 2023 following a global consultation. The guide sets out a practical framework for Ministries of Finance to galvanise action and drive investment in the zero-carbon, climate-resilient future by mainstreaming climate action into their core functions and capabilities. With drafting led by the Grantham Research Institute, the guide is a collaborative effort that involved nearly 30 Ministries of Finance and more than 30 experts and partners of the Coalition. It received 40 submissions from the private and non-governmental sectors.

The Institute is currently supporting the updating of the guide, which is being coordinated by the UN Environment Programme. The second edition is due for publication later in 2026.

Flagship work 2: Economic Analysis for Green and Resilient Transitions initiative

This Coalition initiative brings together expertise from within Ministries of Finance and the analytical community to facilitate the dissemination and development of new tools, methods and datasets designed to answer the questions Ministries of Finance face in relation to the transition to green and resilient economies. The Grantham Research Institute is supporting the leadership of Denmark’s Ministry of Finance on this initiative through report-writing and coordination, developing an online Compendium of Practice which already has more than 130 contributions, fostering the global Community of Practice’s country and regional engagement and project development, and supporting the Forum on the Macroeconomics of Green and Resilient Transitions.