In its latest report, covering the period 2013-18, the OECD said climate finance from developed countries totalled $78.9bn in 2018 – up from $71.2bn in 2017 – meaning markedly bigger increases would be required to reach the UN target of $100bn in 2020.
The increase was driven by public climate finance, which totalled $62.2bn, while finance from private sources remained almost unchanged from 2017, increasing from $14.5bn to $14.6bn.
OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría said early data from the EU and its member states, collectively the largest provider of climate finance, suggested public contributions have continued to increase, but it remains unclear whether the 2020 target is likely to be met.
“Donors need to urgently step up their efforts to support developing countries to respond to the immediate effects of the pandemic and to integrate climate actions into each country’s recovery from the Covid-19 crisis to drive sustainable, resilient and inclusive economic growth,” he said.
Although both loans and grants increased in absolute terms, the share of loans in the public finance response rose from 52% in 2013 to 74% in 2018, while the share of grants fell from 27% to 20% in the same period.
The report showed 70% of 2018 climate finance went to climate change mitigation programmes, 21% to adaptation and the rest to schemes targeting both.
More than half of the total went towards economic infrastructure, such as energy and transport, and most of the remainder went to agriculture and social infrastructure, such as water and sanitation.
In the 2016-18 period, Asia received the largest share of climate finance at 43%, followed by Africa (25%) and the Americas (17%).
