Climate finance rose to an estimated USD 1.5–1.6 trillion in 2023, after reaching USD 1.46 trillion in 2022. The headline growth masks a sharp distribution problem: least developed countries accounted for only 3% of global climate finance during 2018–2022, while emerging markets and developing economies excluding China faced annual needs above USD 2 trillion for 2023–2030.
Contents
- Global climate finance totals and outlook
- International finance and the USD 100 billion goal
- Mitigation finance by sector and instrument
- Adaptation finance and resilience
- Regional and vulnerable-country distribution
- Public, private and multilateral mechanisms
Global climate finance totals and outlook
The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) recorded global climate finance of USD 674 billion in 2018 and USD 1.46 trillion in 2022. CPI estimated the 2023 total at USD 1.5–1.6 trillion. These are estimates of worldwide flows, so the 2023 figure should not be treated as a single-point measurement.
| Measure | Earlier figure | Later figure | Period or status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global climate finance | USD 674bn | USD 1.46tn | 2018 to 2022 |
| Global mitigation finance | USD 627bn | USD 1.3tn | 2018 to 2022 |
| Climate finance to emerging markets and developing economies | USD 327bn | USD 862bn | 2018 to 2022 |
| Climate finance to least developed countries | USD 19bn | USD 39bn | 2018 to 2022 |
Source: Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2024: Insights for COP29.
The geographic split was highly concentrated during 2018–2022. Advanced economies accounted for 45% of global climate finance and China for 36%. Emerging markets and developing economies excluding least developed countries and China accounted for 16%, while least developed countries accounted for just 3%.
Two large investment categories illustrate the scale of recent activity. Renewable-energy investment reached USD 622 billion in 2023, and electrified-transport spending reached USD 634 billion, both according to CPI’s cited BloombergNEF estimates. Multilateral development banks increased climate finance by 25% in 2023, reaching a record USD 125 billion.
International finance and the USD 100 billion goal
The OECD reported that developed countries’ total provided and mobilised climate finance for developing countries was USD 115.9 billion in 2022, USD 132.8 billion in 2023 and USD 136.7 billion in 2024. These totals include different public and mobilised components, so they describe the international finance effort rather than global climate finance as a whole.
| Year | Total provided and mobilised | Public bilateral and attributable multilateral |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | USD 115.9bn | USD 91.6bn |
| 2023 | USD 132.8bn | USD 104.3bn |
| 2024 | USD 136.7bn | USD 101.6bn |
Source: Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013–2024.
Within public finance, bilateral flows were USD 50.2 billion in 2023 and USD 43.9 billion in 2024. Attributable multilateral public finance was USD 54.1 billion in 2023 and USD 57.7 billion in 2024. In 2024, attributable multilateral development-bank finance was USD 50.5 billion and attributable multilateral climate-fund finance was USD 6.8 billion.
Climate-related officially supported export credits reached USD 5.6 billion in 2023 before falling to USD 4.6 billion in 2024. The figures show why the composition of a total matters: a higher overall amount can coexist with changes in bilateral, multilateral and export-credit channels.
Mitigation finance by sector and instrument
Mitigation finance reached USD 1.3 trillion in 2022, up from USD 627 billion in 2018. CPI calculated a 20% compound annual growth rate from 2018 to 2022. Mitigation projects represented 90% of global climate finance in 2022, leaving adaptation and other cross-cutting purposes with a much smaller share.
Renewable energy, low-carbon transport, and buildings and infrastructure together represented 94% of mitigation finance during 2018–2022. Low-carbon transport alone represented 25% of total mitigation flows over that period. Energy-sector mitigation investment excluding power grids reached USD 557 billion in 2022, compared with USD 356 billion in 2018.
The financing structure was also distinctive. Private finance supplied 54% of global mitigation funding during 2018–2022. Market-rate loans provided 57% of mitigation investment, equity instruments provided 32%, and concessional capital—including low-cost debt and grants—comprised 9%.
These percentages describe different dimensions of the same mitigation landscape: sector allocation, source of capital and instrument type. They should not be added together as though they were one distribution.
Adaptation finance and resilience
The OECD recorded developed countries’ provided and mobilised adaptation finance at USD 33.6 billion in 2023 and USD 34.7 billion in 2024. Public finance represented over 90% of developed countries’ adaptation finance in both years. Public adaptation finance was USD 30.6 billion in 2023 and USD 31.7 billion in 2024.
Private finance mobilised for adaptation was about USD 3 billion in both 2023 and 2024, compared with USD 0.4 billion in 2016. Separately, adaptation finance mobilised from the private sector doubled from USD 1.5 billion in 2019 to USD 3 billion in 2024. These figures use the periods and definitions reported by the OECD and should not be combined into an unsupported total.
The doubling benchmark was USD 18.8 billion of OECD-tracked adaptation finance in 2019. OECD estimated that an additional USD 5.8 billion would be needed in 2025 to meet the doubling goal from that 2019 baseline; this is an estimate, not a reported 2025 outcome.
CPI reported that adaptation finance for least developed countries increased from USD 7 billion in 2018 to USD 15 billion in 2022. During 2018–2022, cross-sectoral uses received 47% of least developed countries’ adaptation finance. The increase in the total therefore does not mean that every adaptation category grew at the same rate.
Regional and vulnerable-country distribution
Climate finance to emerging markets and developing economies rose from USD 327 billion in 2018 to USD 862 billion in 2022, a 27% compound annual growth rate. Growth was uneven across the period: flows increased only 2% between 2019 and 2020, then increased 45% between 2021 and 2022.
Excluding China, climate finance to emerging markets and developing economies increased from USD 147 billion in 2018 to USD 244 billion in 2022. CPI estimated annual climate-finance needs for these economies, excluding China, at more than USD 2 trillion for 2023–2030. The comparison is between historical annual flows and a forward-looking needs estimate, not a measured shortfall for a single year.
Least developed countries received USD 39 billion of climate finance in 2022, up from USD 19 billion in 2018. International public financiers supplied over 89% of climate finance to least developed countries in both 2018 and 2022.
The mix of that international public finance changed. Grants rose from 42% to 49% between 2018 and 2022, while low-cost project debt fell from 48% to 33%. Institutional investment increased from USD 57 million in 2018 to USD 880 million in 2022, although it remained a small measured component compared with the overall climate-finance total.
Asia illustrates the scale of the remaining need. The IMF reported that Asia’s emerging-market and developing economies were estimated to need at least USD 1.1 trillion annually for mitigation and adaptation but received USD 333 billion, leaving a gap of at least USD 815 billion. This comes from a 2024 report using the latest available estimates, so the figures should be read as an estimate of annual need and gap rather than a contemporaneous global accounting.
Public, private and multilateral mechanisms
The OECD’s public-finance figures show how strongly loans shape the system. Loans represented 73% of developed countries’ public climate finance in 2023, equal to USD 75.6 billion. In 2024, grants represented 29%, equal to USD 29.7 billion, and equity represented 3%, equal to USD 3.3 billion.
Across 2016–2024, loans accounted for 92% of public climate finance in high-income countries, 87% in upper-middle-income countries and 85% in lower-middle-income countries. Grants accounted for about 65% of public climate finance provided to low-income countries during the same period. The contrast reflects different financing patterns by income group, not a single universal ratio.
Public finance also mobilised private capital. Private finance mobilised by public climate finance reached USD 22.9 billion in 2023 and USD 30.5 billion in 2024. Multilateral development banks mobilised USD 14.3 billion of private climate finance in 2023 and USD 17.4 billion in 2024. Direct investment in companies, guarantees and syndicated loans together accounted for over 70% of private climate finance mobilised during 2016–2024.
The World Bank reported USD 50.8 billion in development finance with climate co-benefits in FY2025, equal to 48% of its financing. FY2025 covered July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, so it is a fiscal-year measure and is not directly interchangeable with calendar-year climate-finance totals.
Taken together, these statistics point to a climate-finance system that is expanding but uneven. Global totals are increasingly shaped by mitigation investment, while adaptation remains predominantly public and vulnerable countries receive a small share of worldwide flows. Income-group differences in the balance between loans and grants, and the large Asia and emerging-market needs estimates, show why the amount of finance alone does not describe whether funding is reaching the places and purposes with the greatest financing pressure.