Climate financing to developing countries increasing: UN official

By Yeter Ada Seko

ISTANBUL (AA) – The overall trend of climate finance flows to developing countries is on the rise, according to the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

During the ongoing COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, representatives from developed and developing countries gathered for the 6th High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Finance.

In his opening speech, Simon Stiell underlined the need for concerted efforts from all parties to take concrete steps in the fight against the climate crisis.

Stiell noted that lessons must be learned from ongoing efforts to meet the $100 billion climate finance goal set for developing countries so that more people can benefit from these efforts.

He also highlighted the key role of finance in enabling climate action, noting that a constructive and solution-oriented approach is crucial to advancing the process.

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev, in his remarks, described climate finance as a key issue for both COP29 and the climate crisis itself.

Babayev also said that the climate finance targets set at the COP summits in Copenhagen and Paris were reviewed at COP29, with the annual $100 billion target being reached for the first time in 2022.

He said that leading multilateral development banks forecast that annual collective climate finance will reach $170 billion by 2030, including $49 billion for adaptation finance.

During the program, UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance members Gabriela Blatter and Richard Muyungi shared details of the second report on the latest developments in climate finance with participants.

Muyungi underlined that according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the flow of finance for adaptation projects increased from 30% to 32% between 2021 and 2022, while the flow for mitigation finance surged from 16% to 60%. He also highlighted that the share of grants rose from 26% to 43%.

Despite these increases, however, he pointed out that the financial needs of developing countries exceed $100 billion annually.

Blatter said that a significant portion of the multilateral climate funds disbursed in 2021 and 2022 went to Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

As the program continued, representatives from developed countries provided updates on their contributions to the funds, while representatives from developing countries called for the creation of a new fund to address the needs required to achieve the 1.5C target.