Climate financing by seven of the world’s largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) accounted for US$ 61.6 billion in 2019, of which US$ 41.5 billion (67 percent) was in low- and middle-income economies, according to the 2019 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance.
The 2019 report shows that US$ 46.6 billion, or 76 percent of total financing for the year, was devoted to climate change mitigation investments that aim to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and slow down global warming. Of this, 59 percent went to low- and middle-income economies.
The remaining US$ 15 billion, or 24 percent, was invested in adaptation efforts to help countries build resilience to the mounting impacts of climate change, including worsening droughts and more extreme weather events from extreme flooding to rising sea levels. Ninety-three per cent of this finance was directed at low- and middle-income economies.
Additional climate funds channeled through MDBs, such as the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund, the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), the European Union’s funds for Climate Action, and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), play an important role in boosting MDB climate financing. In 2019, the MDBs report a further US$ 102.7 billion in net climate co-finance – investments from the public and private sector – taking the total of climate activity financed in the year to US$ 164.3 billion.
The report shows that the MDBs are on track to deliver on their increased climate finance levels. A high-level statement by MDBs highlighted that their global annual climate finance was expected to collectively total at least US$ 65 billion, with US$ 50 billion for low- and middle-income countries by 2025, and that MDB adaptation finance was expected to double to US$ 18 billion by 2025.
Source: EBRD
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