Money talks: Billions in climate aid pledges abound

PARIS, France — The United Nations has compiled a number of climate funding announcements by developed countries, multilateral development banks and multilateral climate funds in the run-up to and at the Paris climate talks.

Climate finance is one of the contentious issues in the United Nations climate change conference. Below are the pledges made so far:

Announcements by Developed Country Parties

Austria will strive to provide at least EUR half a billion in climate finance between 2015 and 2020, in addition to the current Austrian pledge to the GCF.
Belgium announced at the Leaders Event a commitment to provide EUR 50 million annually until 2020, and recalled its EUR 51.6 million contribution to the Green Climate Fund.
Canada will provide CAD 2.65 billion over the next five years in international climate finance to support a transition to low-carbon economies that are both sustainable and more resilient.‎
The Czech Republic recalls its announcement to contribute approximately USD 5.3 million to the GCF for the initial replenishment period and additional approximately USD 2 million for the climate finance readiness activities.
Denmark announced that it would commit DKK 270 million (approximately USD 38 million) in earmarked climate finance in 2016, including DKK 156 million to the Least Developed Countries Fund (approximately USD 22 million) (subject to parliamentary approval).
Estonia has announced its intention to provide EUR 6 million between 2015 and 2020 for climate finance; from that EUR 1 million has already been pledged to the Green Climate Fund.
European Commission announced its intention to more than double climate finance grants from the EU budget up to 2020, reaching EUR 2 billion per year on average.
Finland intends to provide over EUR half a billion in new investment funding for developing countries over the next four years, a substantial part of which will contribute to climate finance.
France announced that it would, by 2020, (i) increase annual climate finance from current EUR 3 billion level to more than EUR 5 billion; and (ii) within this target, triple its annual adaptation finance to reach 1bn EUR by 2020.
Hungary has pledged HUF 1 billion (approximately USD 3.5 million) from 2016 to latest 2020 for international climate finance projects on a multilateral and bilateral basis, which is in addition to its July 2015 pledge to the GCF of HUF 1 billion.
Germany recalled that it aimed at doubling its international climate finance by 2020 compared to 2014.
Iceland will strive to provide around USD 10 million annually to climate related development efforts. Focus will be placed on geothermal development, sustainable land and ocean management, as well as gender equality in climate action.
Ireland will continue public funding ensuring EUR 175 million in climate finance over the period 2016 to 2020 mainly for adaptation and will increase our contribution to the Least Developed Countries Fund. Furthermore Ireland will commence contributions to the GCF in 2016, and is exploring avenues for mobilizing private climate finance.
Italy announced that it will increase its support for international climate finance reaching at least USD 4 billion between 2015-2020.
Japan announced that it would provide, in 2020, Yen 1.3 trillion of public and private climate finance, 1.3 times up from the current level, to developing countries.
Lithuania will continue to finance the implementation of official development cooperation projects by mobilizing additional private sector investments for transfer of the Lithuanian renewable energy and other technologies and pledge EUR 100 000 to Green Climate Fund in 2015.
Luxembourg reiterated that its climate finance contribution would reach the cumulative amount of EUR 365 million over the 2014-2020 period, which would include EUR 245 million of climate-related ODA and an additional EUR 120 million for international climate finance.
The Netherlands reiterated that it will increase its climate finance to EUR 440 million in 2015 and another 20 per cent in 2016 to EUR 550 million.
New Zealand announced it will provide up to NZD 200 million for climate-related support over the next four years, the majority of which will benefit Pacific nations. This builds on the NZD 65 million New Zealand has already spent over the last three years to help Pacific Nations secure reliable and clean energy.
Norway has announced its intent to maintain its finance for REDD+ on at least today’s levels until 2020, which amounts to approximately USD 400 million per year. Norway intends to remain a major contributor of climate finance in the years to come.
Poland has announced its intention to provide USD 8 million until 2020 for climate finance, including for Green Climate Fund.
Slovenia announced its intention to increase its climate finance support by 50 per cent in 2016 compared to previous levels and will strive to maintain this level until 2020.
Sweden announced its intention to nearly double multilateral climate support in 2016 compared to 2015.
Spain announced it aims at doubling its international climate finance by 2020 compared to 2014, by mobilizing an amount of EUR 900 million by 2020.
The United Kingdom recalled that it would increase support for international climate finance by at least 50 per cent, providing at least GBP 5.8 billion between 2016-2021, aiming to spend half on adaptation.
The United States of America announced it will double its grant-based investment in support of vulnerable countries to more than USD 800 million annually by 2020 – through bilateral and multilateral channels – to reduce climate risks in key areas, including infrastructure, agriculture, health and water services.

Announcements by Multilateral Development Banks

The African Development Bank announced that it would triple its climate financing to reach nearly USD 5 billion annually by 2020.
The Asian Development Bank announced that it would more than double its annual climate financing, up to USD 6 billion by 2020. USD 4 billion will be for mitigation, USD 2 billion for adaptation.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development indicated that it would increase the share of environment/climate financing from 25-40 percent of annual commitments by 2020; this will provide USD 20 billion over the next five years, versus USD 20 billion over the last ten years.
The European Investment Bank will finance USD 20 billion a year globally for the next five years under its recently announced climate strategy commitments, a total of USD 100 billion, equal to at least 25 percent of its overall lending for the period. In order to strengthen the impact of EIB’s financing, notably in developing countries, the EIB aims to increase its lending for climate action in those countries to 35 percent of total lending by 2020.
The Inter-American Development Bank announced its aim to double the volume of its climate finance by 2020, provided support of its Governors, this would mean increasing from an average of 14 percent of annual commitments over the last three years to 25-30 percent average commitment by 2020.
The World Bank Group, provided support of its Governors, pledged a one-third increase in climate financing, from 21-28 percent of annual commitments by 2020. If financial capacity were maintained at today’s level in real terms, this means reaching USD 16 billion a year in public finance. The Bank Group intends to continue leveraging its current levels of co-financing for climate-related projects, which could mean up to an additional USD 13 billion a year in 2020. The direct financing and leveraged co-financing together represent an estimated USD 29 billion.

Multilateral Climate Funds

Developed countries announced pledges totaling USD 10.1 billion during the initial resource mobilization of the Green Climate Fund.
A group of 11 ‎countries announced contributions totaling USD 248 million to the Least Developed Countries Fund, hosted by the Global Environment Facility.
The Adaptation Fund has received pledges amounting to almost USD 75 million from Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Walloon Region of Belgium.