• Worldwide 2021 figures surpass 2025 climate finance goals, with global mitigation finance of nearly $63 billion
• Global adaptation finance reaches over $19 billion
• The amount of mobilized global private finance stands at $41 billion

Climate finance committed by major multilateral development banks (MDBs) rose by more than 24% last year compared to 2020, according to the 2021 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance, published today.

The 2021 total financing by multilateral development banks already surpassed the 2025 climate finance goals set at the 2019 UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in New York. The goals amount to an expected collective total of $50 billion for low- and middle-income economies, and at least $65 billion of climate finance globally, with a projected doubling of adaptation finance to $18 billion, and private mobilization of $40 billion.

Low- and middle-income countries

In 2021, MDBs provided around $51 billion (62% of overall MDB climate finance) in climate finance to low- and middle-income economies. Of this total, more than $33 billion (65%) was for climate change mitigation and more than $17 billion (35%) for climate change adaptation. The amount of mobilized private finance stood at $13 billion.

High-income countries

In addition, in 2021, MDBs provided more than $31 billion (38% of overall MDB climate finance) in climate finance to high-income economies, with $29 billion (95%) for climate change mitigation and $1.6 billion (5%) for climate change adaptation. The amount of mobilized private finance stood at $28 billion.

The Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance is an annual collaboration to make the banks’ climate finance figures public, together with a clear explanation of the methodologies for tracking this finance. This joint report, alongside the publication of climate finance statistics for each bank, is intended to track progress in relation to their climate finance targets, such as those announced around COP21, and the greater ambition pledged for the post-2020 period.

The 2021 multilateral development bank report, coordinated by the EIB, combines data from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IADB), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the World Bank Group (WBG). This year’s report also summarises information on climate finance tracking from the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and the New Development Bank (NDB), presented separately from the joint figures.

IDB Group lending in Latin American and Caribbean countries

In 2021, IDB Group climate finance to Latin American and Caribbean countries (all income levels) totalled $5.6 billion, consisting of $4.5 billion to the public sector from IDB; $1.1 billion to the private sector from IDB Invest (for the joint report, only long-term financing is included); and $23 million for innovative projects from the IDB Lab. Notably, several small-island and low-lying coastal states in the region remain critically vulnerable to climate change regardless of income level.

IDB's President a.i. Reina Irene Mejia said: “Mobilizing climate finance is critical to unlocking the capital required to drive strategies and action towards a carbon-free and climate-resilient economy in Latin America and the Caribbean.”