Climate financing hits record $61 billion

Multilaterals lent 46% more in 2022

MANILA, Philippines — Climate finance provided by multilateral development banks (MDBs) to low and middle-income economies hit a new record high of nearly $61 billion last year, according to a new report.

The 2022 Joint Report on MDB’s Climate Finance showed climate finance allocated for low-income and middle-income economies jumped by 46 percent to $60.7 billion last year from $41.5 billion in 2019.

Of the total, 63 percent or $38 billion was for climate change mitigation finance, while 37 percent or $22.7 billion went to climate change adaptation finance.

Mobilized private finance reached $16.9 billion last year.

MDBs also reported that $48.7 billion of their climate finance went to public recipients, while $12 billion went to private recipients in low- and middle-income economies last year.

The report covers climate finance committed by the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank Group, Islamic Development Bank, New Development Bank and the World Bank Group.

The World Bank Group accounted for the highest climate finance for low- and middle-income economies last year amounting to $31.7 billion, followed by the ADB with $7.1 billion.

MDBs are surpassing for the second year in a row the 2025 climate finance targets they set at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in 2019.

These include a collective total of $50 billion climate finance for low-income and middle-income economies.

“It is encouraging to see the growth in MDB climate finance for low- and middle-income economies, particularly the rise in the amount of private sector finance mobilized,” ADB climate envoy Warren Evans said.

Despite the increase in climate financing, Evans pointed out that much more needs to be done.

“In Asia and the Pacific, home to many of the most climate-vulnerable countries, we will need to mobilize significant amounts of private sector finance to move from the billions to trillions required to cut greenhouse gas emissions and urgently scale up climate resilience both now and into the future,” Evans said.