Richer countries have agreed to give poorer nations hundreds of billions to cut emissions, but details can be hard to find
China and Saudi Arabia among nations receiving climate loans, analysis reveals
Sixteen years ago, at the climate summit in Copenhagen, rich and polluting countries pledged to provide $100bn (£76bn) each year by 2020 so that poorer countries could cut their emissions and adapt to a hotter world. Last year, they set a new target of $300bn (£227bn) a year by 2035.
But tracking what really counts under the banner of climate finance has long been fraught – with some experts dubbing it a “wild west” of vague definitions, questionable projects and inflated accounting.
According to widely cited analysis from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), rich countries broke their initial promise but belatedly hit the target threshold in 2022, when they committed $116bn (£88bn). Oxfam, a charity that also tracks the funding but is more critical of how loans are counted, estimates they stumped up just $95.3bn (£72bn) that year – and considers the grant-equivalent value to be less than $35bn (£26.5bn).
