Global climate finance from multilateral development banks increased by 25% in 2023, reaching a record level of $125 billionaccording to a report released Friday, with the fastest growth occurring in the richest countries.
According to the report, climate finance for high-income economies, a World Bank category based on gross national income per capita, increased by 30% to $50.3 billion. Climate finance broadly refers to the financing of climate change-related activities and may include grants, loans and bonds.
The expansion of multilateral banks’ climate finance in low- and middle-income economies was smaller, growing by 23% to $74.7 billion.
The report includes data from 10 institutions, including the Group of World Bank y development banks focused on Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the BRICS countries.
The president of the Inter-American Development BankIlan Goldfajn said the growth in climate finance was significant but stressed the need for more ambitious efforts to tackle the rise in climate disasters, from heatwaves to floods.
“This is a challenge that goes beyond political lines, beyond countries, geography and income. It is an issue that we all need to address,” he said, advancing a message he will deliver at the UN General Assembly. United Nations and Climate Week taking place this month in New York.
Individually, the countries that received the most climate finance from institutions last year were France ($7.4 billion), Spain (7 billion) and Italia (6.7 billion).
Many emerging economieswhich often face scarcer financial resources and greater vulnerability to extreme weather events, have called for more financial support to mitigate the climate crisis, especially as debt financing costs have risen.
Much of the growth in climate-focused investments has been directed at renewable energies already the emission reductionrather than adapting to the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and more intense droughts, fires and storms.
Of the $125 billion that institutions allocated to financing the fight against climate change last year, $27.7 billion, or 22% of the total, was allocated to adaptation to climate changecompared to 25% in 2022.
