Page 9 - AsiaElec Week 26 2021

AsiaElec CLIMATE FINANCE AsiaElec

MDB climate finance reaches $66bn in 2020

ASIA MULTILATERAL development banks (MDBs) Agreement,” said the 2020 report.
provided $66bn of climate finance in 2020, up Of the 2020 total of $66bn, $63bn came from
from $61.6bn in 2019. the MDBs’ own accounts and almost $3bn from
The banks, led by the EBRD, said in their external resources channelled through and man-
2020 Joint Report on Multilateral Development aged by MDBs.
Banks’ Climate Finance that 58% of finance, or These included the Climate Investment
$38bn, was provided to low- and middle-income Funds, Green Climate Fund and climate-related
economies. funds under the Global Environment Facility,
However, MDBs’ commitment to low- and EU blending facilities and others.
middle-income economies actually fell from “Climate action has never been more urgent
$41.5bn in 2019, which the banks blamed on the than now. Speed, scale and financing are crit-
need to support poorer countries to recover from ical to enable transition into low-carbon and
the economic and health impact of coronavirus climate-resilient development pathways and
(COVID-19). achieving the universally agreed goals of the
The MDBs also provided $85bn of co-fi- Paris Agreement,” said ADB’s vice-president for
nancing during 2020, meaning that total climate knowledge management and sustainable devel-
finance and co-finance reached $151bn. The opment, Bambang Susantono.
amount of private direct mobilisation stood at Nearly $50bn (76%) of total MDB climate
$5.9bn. finance in 2020 was associated with climate
In terms of regions, sub-Saharan Africa change mitigation investments that aim to
received $9bn, while East Asia and the Pacific reduce harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-
received $6bn and South Asia $8bn. sions and slow down global warming.
Meanwhile, the EU received $26bn in sup- Of this, 50% went to low- and middle-in-
port, illustrating how developing countries come economies. More than $16bn (24%) for
in Asia and Africa continue to have difficul- climate change adaptation finance was invested
ties in accessing soft lending to promote green in adaptation efforts to help countries build
investment. resilience to the mounting impacts of climate
For example, South Africa’s climate finance change, including worsening droughts and more
from the MDBs rose from $55mn in 2015 to extreme weather events, from flooding to rising
$557mn in 2020. By contrast, Spain received sea levels. Of this, 83% was directed to low- and
$1.9bn in 2015 and $3.2bn in 2020. middle-income economies.
The report said that over the past six years, Looking ahead, the report states that the
MDBs have jointly committed a total of $257bn AfDB aims to double its climate finance to $25bn
in climate finance, of which $186bn had been for the period 2020-25, giving priority to adap-
directed at low- and middle-income economies. tation finance.
The MDBs from 2021 intend to increase their Asia’s ADB wants that, by 2030, at least 75%
green financing commitment to $65bn per year, of the number of its committed operations (on
with $50bn of MDB climate finance for low-in- a three-year rolling average, including sovereign
come and middle-income countries; an increase and non-sovereign operations) will be support-
in adaptation finance to $18bn; and private direct ing climate change mitigation and adaptation.
mobilisation of $40bn. The figures cover the EBRD, the African
“The MDBs will continue to improve their Development Bank (AfDB), the ADB, the
tracking and reporting of climate finance in Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB),
the context of their commitments to ensure the European Investment Bank (EIB), the
consistent financial flows to the countries’ long- Inter-American Development Bank Group, the
term, low-carbon and climate-resilient devel- Islamic Development Bank and the World Bank
opment pathways, as established in…the Paris Group.™

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