By Virginia Furness
LONDON (Reuters) -Multilateral development banks provided a record $137 billion in climate finance in 2024, up 10% from the previous year, and also helped boost private sector funding for climate-related investments by a third, a report by the banks showed on Tuesday.
The increase in investment comes as nations gear up for the next round of U.N. climate talks in Brazil in November, where developing countries are set to call for more help to pay for the impacts of climate change caused mainly by richer nations.
To help accelerate action, countries are being urged to turn up at the COP30 talks with fresh plans to attract private sector investment in the climate fight – a crucial step as official development aid is slashed by many countries.
“MDBs are clearly supporting the move to accelerate (climate finance),” said Nancy Saich, chief climate change expert at the European Investment Bank, one of the development banks involved in the report.
“We hope that by showing that our finance is flowing, this encourages countries to come with ambitious national climate plans to the COP (because) overall, we’re not yet on track to a safe world, and a safe temperature.”
Multilateral development banks (MDBs) directed most of their climate finance – $85.1 billion – towards low- and middle-income countries, with finance to the world’s poorest nations more than doubling over the past five years, the report said.
Of this, 69%, or $58.8 billion, went to climate change mitigation projects such as renewable energy, while 31%, or $26.3 billion, went to adaptation projects that help countries withstand climate change impacts.
Over the same period, MDBs delivered $51.5 billion to high-income countries, of which $46.5 billion was for climate mitigation and $5 billion for adaptation, the report showed.
MDBs increased the amount of private finance mobilised to support climate action by a third to $134 billion in 2024.
(Reporting by Virginia Furness;Editing by Helen Popper)
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