Separating climate finance and ODA

by Fiona Ryan April 24, 2019

World leaders at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference (Credit: UN)

Written by Fiona Ryan

International cooperation on climate change has been dogged by problems of who should pay to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience against climate change. Suspicion reigns!

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, the rich countries of the developed world committed to providing US $100 billion annually by 2020 in climate finance to developing countries. Also, in 2015 developed countries once again pledged to provide 0.7% of GNI as official development assistance (ODA) to meet their commitments under the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It seems developed countries have decided to achieve both targets with the same funds.

The latest figures from the OECD show that developed countries claim US $54 billion in climate financing to developing countries.