This is an increase of nearly 30% on the previous year, a joint statement from the five banks said.

In 2016, climate financing by the banks - the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the EBRD, the Inter-American Development Bank Group and the World Bank Group - totalled $27.4bn.

In a joint report out today they said 79% of the 2017 total climate financing - $27.9bn – was devoted to projects helping developing countries cut emissions and address climate risks.

The remaining $7.4bn went to help economies deal with the effects of climate change, such as higher than usual levels of rain, worsening droughts and extreme weather events.

Josué Tanaka, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development managing director for energy efficiency and climate change, said: “The EBRD strongly recognises the importance of cooperation between multilateral development banks for scaling-up climate finance.”

Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and the Pacific were the three major developing regions receiving the funds.

The increased climate financing comes as a response to the ever more pressing challenge of climate change and global calls to address them, such as through the Paris Agreement, the banks said.

Of the 2017 total, 81% was provided through loans, while other types of financial support included policy-based lending, grants, guarantees and lines of credit.

In October 2017, the Islamic Development Bank joined the MDB climate finance tracking groups and its figures will be included in joint reports from 2018.