Climate financing by the world’s six largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) rose to $35.2 billion in 2017, up 28 per cent on the previous year.
The latest joint report by the MDBs on climate financing said $27.9 billion, or 79 per cent of the 2017 total, was devoted to climate mitigation projects that aim to reduce harmful emissions and slow down global warming.
The remaining 21 per cent, or $7.4 billion, of financing for emerging and developing nations was invested in climate adaptation projects that help economies deal with the effects of climate change such as unusual levels of rain, worsening droughts and extreme weather events.
In 2016 climate financing from the MDBs was put at $27.4 billion.
Climate funds 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, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and others have also played an important role in boosting MDB climate finance. As well as the $35.2 billion of multilateral development finance, the same adaptation and mitigation projects attracted an additional $51.7 billion from other sources of financing last year.
Of the 2017 total, 81 per cent was provided as loans. Other types of financial instruments included policy-based lending, grants, guarantees, equity and lines of credit.
Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and the Pacific were the three major developing regions receiving the funds, the report said.