The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) defines effectiveness in the context of development co-operation as “the extent to which the development intervention’s objectives were achieved, or are expected to be achieved” (OECD, 2010a). However, there is no common set of widely accepted criteria against which effectiveness can be measured and upon which to form an understanding of what constitutes as “effective international climate finance” (Ellis, Caruso and Ockenden, 2013, Brown et al., Reaching a common view is inherently difficult, due to the number of providers and range of channels operating across the climate and development finance communities, the diversity of recipient countries each with different needs, priorities and development agendas, and an increasing selection of instruments used to mobilise climate finance (e.g. grants, loans, export credits and guarantees).