NEW DELHI: Developed countries, for the first time, may have met their overdue target of mobilising $100 billion to help developing nations deal with the effects of climate change in 2022, indicates an estimate of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Released late Thursday, two weeks ahead of the UN climate summit (COP28) in Dubai, the OECD assessment report shows that the climate finance provided and mobilised by developed countries reached $89.6 billion in 2021 which is close to an 8% increase over 2020.
Though the amount is still $10 billion short of the goal to mobilise climate finance of $100 billion a year, the report says the goal looks likely to have already been met in 2022 as per “unverified data” available to the OECD to date.
“The overall upward trend is positive…The increase needed to reach the $100 billion goal that was set for 2020 has not yet been achieved, but preliminary data available to the OECD indicates that countries look likely to have met that objective ahead of 2023,” OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann said.
The assessment has, however, noted a worrying trend where adaptation finance dropped by $4 billion (-14%) in 2021, resulting in a decrease in its share of total climate finance from 34% to 27%.
As a result, in 2021, mitigation continued to represent the majority (60%) of total climate finance provided and mobilised (as against 27% for adaptation and 13% for cross-cutting actions) even as the countries have long been pitching for increasing the share of adaptation finance to 50%.
Experts flagged another worrying aspect, saying the assessment also reveals a bitter inequity. “The prevalent approach to climate finance, dominated by loans instead of grants, increases the debt burden on developing nations,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International.