The rich countries achieved their goal in 2022 for annual $100 billion in climate aid for the poorest countries, however with a delay of two years, as it was a commitment they undertook in 2019, confirmed today Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

“In 2022 developed countries provided and mobilized a total of $115.9 billion to finance the fight against climate change in developing countries”according to the OECD, which is in charge of formally assessing the compatibility of the commitment with what was implemented, while this commitment is expected to be the product of renegotiation until the COP29 that will be held in November in Baku.

Rich countries, which have traditionally been the main responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, committed in 2019, under the auspices of the UN Convention to Combat Climate Change (CNUCC), to increase by 2020 to the round sum of 100 billion dollars their annual climate aid and this to be valid until 2025.

These funds are mostly used to finance the decarbonisation of the energy and transport sectors, as well as to help poor countries secure their water supplies, mainly for agriculture, reforestation and remediation work, in order to adapt to the consequences of extreme weather events in a world 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels.

However, the delay in honoring this commitment was a reason for great tension, even deadlock, in the international climate negotiations. A number of developing countries are making their phasing out of fossil fuels dependent on the financing efforts of rich countries, which is considered a “moral debt”.

Reaching an agreement on the new amount of this aid to be granted after 2025 is the main result expected from the 29th UN Conference on Climate to be held in November under the presidency of Azerbaijan this year.

Whatever is decided, the amount will remain well below what is needed, which is estimated at $2.4 trillion annually by 2030 for developing countries (excluding China), according to a UN expert estimate. However, it is supposed to be a geopolitical signal that affects the rest of the global economy.

India has proposed a new target of $1,000 billion. However, this increase is considered challenging by developed countries, which emphasize the burden that other countries, such as China or the Gulf countries, bear in the global account of the emissions of gases that cause the greenhouse effect.

“Smoke screen”

Specifically, rich countries’ $89.6 billion in climate aid increased by 30% in 2022, according to the OECD, who hailed “a very significant increase, the biggest in a year”, which beat his forecasts.

In November, ahead of COP28 in Dubai, the OECD announced that the 100 billion target was “likely to be reached” by 2022, but did not yet have a final tally.

“An $11.2 billion funding gap remains to be filled to make up for missing the target in 2020 and 2021,” noted however Friederike Render, vice-president of the non-governmental organization Global Citizen.

“Most of these funds are loans” (69%) “and not grants” (28%) “and are often combined with existing aid, which blurs the lines of real financial aid”, Harjit Singh of Climate Activist also pointed out.

“It’s not just about numbers, it’s about integrity and real support: rich countries should act urgently, tear down these smokescreens and provide real and substantial financial support,” warned.

The main part of this aid (80%) comes from public money spent through development banks, the rest comes mainly from private financing released from these public funds. About $70 billion of that funding goes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, $32 billion to adapting to the already devastating effects of climate change, and the rest to both.