Constructing a LEDS requires a tool that enables governments to evaluate and prioritize policies across an economy and clearly explain the process used to make this determination. Because governments’ development priorities are the drivers behind LEDS, optimization tools used for LEDS should incorporate development benefits to reflect this priority. Yet, leading tools used by practitioners do not always adequately capture or communicate the development impacts of proposed actions. To address this shortcoming, several members of the LEDS Global Partnership set out to review existing approaches to capturing and communicating development benefits of climate action and propose a new tool for communicating development benefits to policy makers as part of a LEDS process.