Diana CÁRDENAS MONAR
Research Lead – Tools for financing the transition at the international levelDiana joined I4CE in 2023 to contribute to the development and implementation of projects with a strong international dimension. Her mission is to foster two-way learning between I4CE’s work in France and international experience. She works with international partners to support countries, sharing and adapting I4CE’s approaches to different national contexts and helping to strengthen them through this work. At the same time, she draws on international practices and lessons to develop new approaches and enrich I4CE’s work in France and beyond.
Before joining I4CE, Diana was General Coordinator of the Climate Finance Group for Latin America and the Caribbean (GFLAC), where she spent two years developing and managing projects in collaboration with governments, international organizations, financial institutions and civil society partners. Prior to and alongside this role, she worked as an independent consultant and in the public and private sectors in Ecuador, including as Innovation Director at the Central Bank of Ecuador. Over the past 10 years, her work has focused on climate and sustainable finance, green budgeting, carbon pricing and carbon markets, tracking financial flows for the energy transition, integrated approaches to financing adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and financial and monetary innovation.
Diana holds an Erasmus Mundus Master of Science in Sustainable Territorial Development jointly delivered by three European universities (KU Leuven, University of Paris 1, and University of Padua), a Master in Economics of Planning and Local Development by the University of Paris 1 – Pantheon Sorbonne, and a specialization in Leadership, Climate Change and Cities by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO – Ecuador/Costa Rica). She is also a graduate in Business and International Relations from the Catholic University of Ecuador.
Last contributions
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24/09/2026
Blog post
Second Inter-regional Exchange of Ministries of Finance for Climate
How to strengthen fiscal and financial resilience in the face of climate change and related economic shocks, and translate climate commitments into implementation ? -
18/09/2026
Climate Report
The Sustainable Finance Progress (SFP) framework : an integrated approch to tracking efforts in G20 economies
The Sustainable Finance Progress (SFP) framework responds to this challenge by providing an integrated, bottom-up and context-sensitive approach to tracking country-level progress on sustainable finance. Rather than replacing existing initiatives, it builds on and connects them within a common analytical structure. -
11/12/2025
Blog post
Climate finance at COP30: Progress, pitfalls, persistent challenges and the path ahead
A few weeks ago, COP30 concluded in Belém with all parties agreeing on a “global mobilization” (or mutirão) against climate change, proving that multilateralism remains a viable path for action, despite strong geopolitical and economic headwinds. However, Belém delivered underwhelming results: no roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels –despite a powerful push from President Lula, rallying over 80 countries, a lack of concrete decisions on deforestation –disappointing for an “Amazon COP”, and mixed results on the global goal on adaptation, among other outcomes. -
13/06/2025
Foreword of the week
The unlocked potential of carbon revenues to help fill the climate finance gap
Climate negotiations are taking place next week in Bonn, with finance once again high on the agenda. COP 29 ended last year with a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) –revised climate finance target to replace the USD 100 billion goal. The NCQG decision put forward a commitment by developed countries to lead in providing USD 300 billion per year by 2035 for developing countries, as well as a proposal to work on a roadmap to scale up climate finance for developing countries to reach a level closer to the estimated needs –the ‘Baku to Belem Roadmap to 1.3T’ (USD 1.3 trillion). The latter must be delivered at the end of the year at COP 30, and strong efforts are being put in the task by the Brazilian Presidency.
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11/06/2025
Climate Report
Global carbon accounts 2025
This 2025 edition of the Global Carbon Accounts presents a landscape of carbon pricing instruments through the lens of their current and potential contribution to scale up climate and development finance. Several jurisdictions are already using carbon revenues to support a range of policy objectives, including decarbonization efforts and support for economic actors most affected by the transition. Yet there is still potential for them to further contribute to fill the gap. -
21/03/2025
Blog post
In the absence of a carbon tax in Canada, measures to fill the gap are essential
On his first day in office, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the elimination of the consumer carbon tax, in response to political pressures rather than evidence-based concerns about its effectiveness or impact on affordability. The tax had played a crucial role in reducing the country’s GHG emissions, and along with other carbon pricing policies, was expected to contribute nearly half of Canada’s emissions reductions by 2030. Additionally, the majority of revenues collected were redistributed to citizens, protecting vulnerable households. Thus, without alternative policies to compensate, eliminating the tax could slow emissions reductions and increase inflationary pressure, particularly for low- and middle-income families who benefited financially from the Canada Carbon Rebate funded by the tax. -
12/02/2025
Climate Report
Carbon pricing Q&A
Frequently asked questions on the development and implementation of carbon pricing policies. This work aims to provide a carefully curated companion tool for jurisdictions considering or developing a carbon pricing instrument, with questions and answers (Q&A) focused on opportunities they can bring, specific challenges and policy choices pertaining to the design and implementation of carbon taxation and emission trading systems in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDES). -
05/12/2024
Climate Report
Thinking about the implications: How countries plan to finance their climate transition
The urgency of climate action is becoming ever more apparent, yet we remain far from securing the level of financing required for meaningful progress. The first Global Stocktake underscored a widening gap between the needs of developing countries and the support they receive, while advanced economies also struggle to finance their own ambitious climate targets. -
13/06/2024
Blog post
After Bonn and towards COP 29: the battle on finance and the role of financing plans for the transition
Tense climate negotiations just ended in Bonn with limited progress on finance and the revised climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. During the opening ceremony of the sixtieth sessions of the subsidiary bodies (SB 60) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Simon Stiell –Executive Secretary– highlighted the need to “make serious progress on finance, the great enabler of climate action” and to aim for bolder, broader and inclusive third generation Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs 3.0) that “can serve as blueprints to propel economies and societies forward and drive more resilience”. -
17/05/2024
Foreword of the week
Carbon pricing revenues: their role in financing the climate transition
Last month, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, Simon Stiell, stressed how important this and next year are for the achievement of the Paris Agreement and called for “a quantum leap in climate finance” ahead of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund. Indeed, with emissions required to peak before 2025, our window of opportunity is rapidly closing to keep 1.5°C within reach. More and better finance is urgently needed. Carbon pricing policies and their revenues are part of the tools available that can help fill the climate finance gap. -
15/05/2024
Climate Report
Maximising benefits of carbon pricing through carbon revenue use: A review of international experiences
Carbon pricing policies and their revenues are part of the tools available that can help fill the climate finance gap. With raising revenues from carbon taxes and emission trading systems (ETSs) that have tripled since the Paris Agreement, and an upward trend that could continue in the medium-term, ‘how to use carbon revenues’ has become a crucial question. This report, prepared as an activity of the EU-funded European Union Climate Dialogues (EUCDs) project, aims to inform policymakers and practitioners on lessons learned and ways forward on the use of carbon revenues, with a comprehensive approach based on a review of international experiences. -
19/04/2024
Blog post
More and better finance: maximising positive climate impacts for a timely transition
Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, significant strides have been made to foster the commitment of countries and financial institutions to address the climate crisis and ensure that climate risks and opportunities are considered in investments. However, with emissions required to peak before 2025, our window of opportunity is rapidly closing to keep +1.5°C within reach. Financial needs to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to address adaptation priorities are increasing rapidly in the meantime. Luis Zamarioli Santos and Diana Cárdenas Monar, from I4CE, believe that commitment must urgently translate into action, and action must bring the urgent change the world needs. Both governments and public financial institutions have a central role to play to deliver more and better finance, maximising positive impacts. This blogpost highlights some opportunities to advance in the path for a systemic transformation, involving key stakeholders with a whole-economy approach. -
31/08/2023
Blog post
Synergising Sustainable Development Goals Finance with Climate Finance
Sustainable development and climate change are two pressing and interconnected issues that countries have committed to address at the international level. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including climate action, at its core was adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015. The same year, the Paris Agreement was adopted by Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Both instruments have clear global and national targets in the medium- and long-term that are still far from being met. -
15/06/2023
Blog post
Reforming development finance to enable the sustainable development transition
This blog-post is conducted by [i4ce] and IDDRI. The international community recognizes that the global development finance architecture is no longer fit for purpose. The World Bank, the IMF, and other institutions of the broader development finance system are today asked to invest more in global goods (specifically to fight against climate change and to preserve biodiversity, but their internal structure and the paradigms on which they ground their decisions have not changed since they were created with development – poverty and macroeconomic stability notably – as their main mandate. In this context, it should be no surprise that the response of these international institutions remains inadequate in terms of volume, structure and accessibility.