While the wealthiest countries are on track to mobilize $100 billion in climate change-related financing for developing countries this year, earlier targets have not been met and the reported climate relevance of earlier bilateral climate finance may have been over-reported by as much as 30 percent, a report from Oxfam International finds.

The report, Climate Finance Shadow Report 2023: Assessing the delivery of the $100 billion commitment (50 pages, PDF), calls on high-income countries to accelerate the mobilization of climate finance and make up for earlier shortfalls with greater transparency and accountability, allowing for a substantive increase in local ownership and responsiveness to the needs of recipient communities. In 2020, while wealthy countries mobilized $83.3 billion in climate finance, those countries contributed no more than $24.5 billion in new funding directed specifically at climate change. Of that amount, only $11.5 billion went to projects that would help poorer countries guard against worsening climate disasters. To put the figure in context, one Oxfam official noted that "[p]eople in the United States spend four times more than that each year feeding their cats and dogs.”

According to Oxfam, more than half of climate finance allocated to the least developed countries and more than one-third of finance to small island states was provided as loans with terms that are less advantageous than what might be obtained in financial markets. Overall, just one-quarter of reported public climate finance was provided as grants. The report also noted that only 33 percent of reported public climate finance was for long-term adaptation, while 59 percent was for near-term mitigation efforts.

Noting that talks on financing goals for after 2025 have begun as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the report concludes with a call to action: “If those working on the new finance goal do not learn from the mistakes outlined in this report, they will have failed before they even start. Contributions must become far more transparent, building on clear commitments that allow for accountability. There needs to be a new global public finance goal specifically for adaptation,” the authors state. “Public finance is a lifeline for communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis….We are at a critical point for trust in multilateral processes, without which we will not be able to limit climate change.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Fabrizio Maffei)