While financial commitments for climate and health increased significantly between 2018-22, they are still not sufficiently reaching countries most impacted by climate change, a white paper from the Rockefeller Foundation finds.

Developed and produced by SEEK Development in partnership with adelphi consult and AfriCatalyst, with editorial support from Global Health Strategies, the paper, Resourcing Climate and Health Priorities: A Mapping of International Finance Flows from 2018-2022 (78 pages, PDF), found that financial commitments for climate and health increased from less than $1 billion in 2018 to $7.1 billion in 2022. More than half were commitments from bilateral donors ($4.8 billion), with the other funding primarily coming from multilateral health funds ($1.5 billion), multilateral development banks ($600 million), philanthropies ($160 million), and multilateral climate funds ($23 million). While the growth demonstrates increasing prioritization of climate and health among leading finance partners, less than 35 percent of finance from bilateral donors was channeled directly to countries, and less than 50 percent of overall funding analyzed flowed to low-income countries.

According to the report, bilateral donors are increasingly making health investments that include climate considerations, as the share of climate funding directed to the health sector increased from 1 percent in 2018 to 9 percent in 2022; however, 24 percent of the available funding in 2022 was provided as loans rather than as grants. More than 90 percent of climate and health financing commitments from the Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank were provided as loans.

In addition, the report provides recommendations that include increasing support to scale funding across sectors; accelerating access to financial resources; channeling funds to align with country priorities; standardizing definitions; and embracing transparency.

“While the increase in financing for climate and health projects is a promising step in the right direction, the overall amount of funding still falls far short of what is needed to protect lives and livelihoods from the devastating impacts of climate change,” said Rockefeller Foundation senior vice president, health, Naveen Rao. “Donors from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors must increase their commitments to climate and health, while also making sure that funding reaches the communities that need it most.”

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