由于气候变化的外延性很强，对气候融资需求的定义在不同的政策框架下具有很大差异。在《2012年中国气候融资报告》中，中央财经大学气候与能源金融研究中心（RCCEF）对融资需求进行了初步研究。2013年，RCCEF进一步与国家发改委能源研究所（ERI）合作，对气候融资需求进行了更为严谨清晰的定义，开发了气候融资需求分析模型（Climate Financing Demand Analysis Model，简称CFDAM），进一步描绘了气候融资领域的供求结构。

The scope of climate finance demand can vary dramatically under different policy environment. After an initial research on climate finance demand in 2012 China Climate Financing Report, the Research Center for Climate and Energy Finance (RCCEF) cooperated with ERI to step into this issue by identifying the climate finance demand more clearly and developing the Climate Finance Demand Analysis Model (CFDAM) to explore the supply and demand structure of climate finance.