Climate finance committed by major multilateral development banks (MDBs) rose in 2021, with over $19-billion committed to climate change adaptation finance, according to the joint ‘Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance’ report published last week.

The report tracks the progress of MDBs in relation to their climate finance targets, such as those announced at COP21, and the greater ambition pledged for the post-2020 period.

The report finds that total financing commitment by MDBs to low- and middle-income economies in 2021 of $50.67-billion, surpassed the yearly expectations of $50-billion set in 2019 at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in New York.

Of the $50.67-billion of climate finance committed to low- and middle-income economies, $47.24-billion was from the MDBs’ own account and $3.43-billion from external resources that were channelled through the banks.

Mitigation finance committed to low- and middle-income economies totalled $33.06-billion, or 65%, while adaptation finance totalled $17.61-billion, or 35%.

The 2019 goals projected a collective total of $50-billion for low- and middle-income economies and at least $65-billion of climate finance globally, with an estimated doubling of adaptation finance to $18-billion and private mobilisation of $40-billion.

The report also records a notable increase in adaptation finance to over $19-billion in 2021, again beating expectations. A total of $19.19-billion was committed to climate change adaptation finance, with $17.61-billion, or 92%, committed to low- and middle- income economies, thus surpassing the expected collective delivery of increasing adaptation finance to $18-billion.

“As MDBs, we have steadily grown the amount of and access to climate finance over the last decade, thereby demonstrating the potential of multilateralism in tackling global threats.

“However, this is not near enough, and efforts to ramp up the quantum of, and rate of access to, global climate finance, especially adaptation finance, in developing countries are necessary,” says African Development Bank (AfDB) power, energy, climate and green growth VP Kevin Kariuki.

“This is why we have established flagship programmes such as the $25-billion African Adaptation Acceleration Program and the $20-billion Desert-to-Power, to accelerate climate action, while safeguarding the wellbeing of our people and nature,” he explains.

This edition of the report presents the MDBs’ climate finance commitments data in two different chapters, with data for low- and middle-income economies and that for high-income economies presented separately.

The AfDB’s contribution to climate finance in 2021 was $2.49-billion, or 41%, of all bank investment approvals.

Of this amount, the proportion of climate adaptation grew to 67%, which the bank says evidences its commitment to supporting its regional member countries build adaptive capacity and climate resilience.

The 2021 MDB report combines data from the AfDB, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the Islamic Development Bank and the World Bank Group.