Climate finance to help developing countries cope with and adapt to climate change reached $79.6 billion in 2019, more than $20 billion short of the $100 billion target collectively set by developed countries, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Friday 17 September.
However, this represents a 2% increase on the 78.3 billion mobilised in 2018, thanks to a 15% increase in public climate finance provided by multilateral institutions. Bilateral official financing commitments and financing mobilised from private sources decreased by 10 and 4% respectively, the OECD underlined.
Describing the timid progress between 2018 and 2019 as “disappointing”, the OECD Secretary-General, Mathias Cormann, said “it is clear” that climate finance for 2020 would remain “well short of its target”.
The OECD data also shows that of the 79.6 billion, 25% went to climate change adaptation, 64% to climate change mitigation activities and the rest to crosscutting activities.
Over the period 2016-2019, Asia was the main recipient of climate finance with 43% of the total on average, followed by Africa (26%) and the Americas (17%).
The OECD also expressed concern that climate finance for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) has fallen back to its 2017 level after an increase in 2018 from $2.1 billion to $1.5 billion.
Funding for least developed countries (LDCs), on the other hand, increased by 27% between 2018 and 2019.
While the European Union and its Member States provide more than 40% of global public climate finance, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an increase in the EU’s contribution of up to €4 billion until 2027, on Wednesday 15 September, during her State of the Union address (see EUROPE 12791/2).
See OECD data: https://bit.ly/39erc8b (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)