Global Landscape of Climate Finance

The report finds that while global climate finance almost doubled between 2011 and 2020 to a cumulative USD 4.8 trillion, current growth rates are insufficient to meet climate goals. Renewable energy dominates mitigation finance, while adaptation and sectors like agriculture and industry remain severely underfunded. A significant barrier is the continued high level of fossil fuel subsidies, which exceeded total climate finance during the decade. The report emphasizes the need for a 20% annual increase in finance by 2030, reaching USD 4.3 trillion annually, and calls for holistic sectoral strategies and a shift in the financial paradigm to mobilize private capital.

• Global climate finance grew at a cumulative average annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% between 2011 and 2020, totaling USD 4.8 trillion. However, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, annual finance flows must reach at least USD 4.3 trillion by 2030, requiring a CAGR of 21%.
• Public sector climate finance grew faster (9.6% CAGR) than private sector finance (4.8% CAGR) between 2011 and 2020. While private actors are committing to net zero, their contributions are not increasing at the speed necessary to offset public sector capacity constraints.
• Renewable energy has been the dominant recipient of mitigation finance, accounting for nearly 70% of the total. In contrast, adaptation finance is starkly underfunded, and critical sectors such as agriculture, forestry, other land use and fisheries (AFOLU), and industry are trailing behind.
• Fossil fuel subsidies in 51 major countries between 2011 and 2020 totaled USD 6.8 trillion, which is 40% higher than the total global investment in climate finance for the same period.
• Climate finance is highly concentrated geographically and by source; 75% of all finance was concentrated in North America, Western Europe, and East Asia & Pacific, and 76% of flows were raised and spent domestically.
• Debt was the primary instrument for climate finance, with 80% of finance provided as debt or equity expecting market-rate returns. Concessional finance accounted for 16% of the total, while grants remained low at less than 5%.
• Preliminary estimates for 2021 show climate finance flows reached an all-time high of USD 850 – USD 940 billion, a 28% - 42% increase from 2019/20 averages, largely driven by the transport sector and electric vehicle demand.

APA

Naran, B., Connolly, J., Rosane, P., Wignarajah, D., & Wakaba, G. (2022). Global Landscape of Climate Finance. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Global-Landscape-of-Climate-Finance-A-Decade-of-Data.pdf

Chicago

Naran, Baysa, Jake Connolly, Paul Rosane, Dharshan Wignarajah, and Githungo Wakaba. Global Landscape of Climate Finance. Climate Policy Initiative, 2022. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Global-Landscape-of-Climate-Finance-A-Decade-of-Data.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{naran2022global, author = {Naran, Baysa and Connolly, Jake and Rosane, Paul and Wignarajah, Dharshan and Wakaba, Githungo}, title = {{Global Landscape of Climate Finance}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2022}, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Global-Landscape-of-Climate-Finance-A-Decade-of-Data.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }