The UN Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved $1.3bn in new climate finance this week, covering 22 projects in nearly 40 developing countries.
The majority of the projects approved for support were for adaptation — adjusting to the effects of climate change where possible. The countries that will receive the finance are among the most vulnerable to climate change, including small island developing states.
The $1.3bn total is the largest amount approved at a GCF board meeting, and takes this year's total to a new record of $3.26bn, the fund said today. This surpasses the previous high of $2.9bn in 2021. The fund now has a portfolio of 336 projects, totalling $19.3bn in GCF financing and $78.7bn including "expected co-financing", it said today.
The GCF operates under the financial mechanism of UN climate body the UNFCCC and is mandated to invest half of its resources in mitigation and half in adaptation. It is the world's largest climate fund and was originally capitalised with $10.3bn in 2015. The fund's first replenishment, in 2019, gathered a further $10bn in pledges and its second replenishment reached around $13.6bn after funds committed at UN Cop climate summits in 2023 and 2024.
Climate finance will be a central topic at Cop 30 in November. The conference will see the release of a "roadmap" designed to lay out a pathway to scaling up climate finance to developing nations to $1.3 trillion by 2035. The roadmap, which is likely to summarise different country contributions, is not binding and will not be negotiated.
The OECD said today that developed countries are "likely" to have met in 2023 a goal to deliver $100bn/yr in climate finance to developing nations, based on preliminary data. The $100bn/yr target covered 2020-5, but countries only reached the goal in 2022, when they delivered $115.9bn, the OECD said. It said that 2023 amounts were at "a level similar to 2022".
Almost 200 countries agreed at Cop 29 in 2024 that developed countries would deliver $300bn/yr in climate finance to developing nations by 2035.
