Closing the Governance Gap: Aligning Finance, Assessment, and Disclosure for Climate-Compatible Infrastructure

Abstract

Governments worldwide are advancing climate-compatible infrastructure (CCI) to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement targets. Yet implementation remains fragmented and weakly coordinated, limiting transformative impact. We identify a structural gap across three governance functions critical to CCI delivery: financing, performance assessment, and impact disclosure. These functions are governed by distinct and often disconnected systems led respectively by Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), Infrastructure Rating Tools (IRTs), and Sustainability Reporting Frameworks (SRFs). We propose a systems-based governance model, the “MDB–IRT–SRF” nexus, that enables infrastructure to be more accountable, traceable, and responsive to regional contexts. Drawing on the comparative analysis across six regions (Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania, North America, and South America), we illustrate that the nexus provides a diagnostic framework applicable across diverse contexts. However, its effectiveness depends on enabling conditions, including institutional capacity, regulatory alignment, and interoperable data systems. Rather than a technical solution alone, realizing this integration requires an incremental institutional shift toward coordinated financing, assessment, and disclosure systems. We argue that stronger alignment across these governance functions can support more credible, measurable, and context-sensitive CCI outcomes.