OECD Says Developed Countries Exceeded $100 Billion Climate Finance Goal For Third Year

Developed countries provided and mobilised $136.7 billion in climate finance for developing countries in 2024, up from $132.8 billion in 2023.
The $100 billion annual goal, first agreed under the UNFCCC in 2009, has now been exceeded for three consecutive years.
Adaptation finance is still short of the growth needed to meet the Glasgow Climate Pact goal of doubling 2019 levels by 2025.

Climate Finance Climbs Above The UN Goal

Developed countries again exceeded the long-running $100 billion climate finance goal in 2024, strengthening a key measure of trust between wealthy economies and the developing countries most exposed to climate risk.

New OECD data shows that developed countries provided and mobilised $132.8 billion in climate finance for developing countries in 2023 and $136.7 billion in 2024. The figures follow $115.9 billion in 2022, when the target was met for the first time.

The goal was agreed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2009. It required developed countries to mobilise $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts. The deadline was later extended to 2025.

“The USD 100 billion goal was exceeded for the third consecutive year in 2024, showing clear commitment to supporting developing economies to adapt to and mitigate climate change,” OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. “Both mobilised private finance and adaptation finance rose, which are key for developing countries to meet their climate objectives.”

Public Finance Still Carries The Load

Public climate finance continued to account for about three quarters of total support in 2023 and 2024. That includes bilateral finance and multilateral public finance attributed to developed countries.

Multilateral public climate finance rose steadily, reaching $57.7 billion in 2024. Bilateral public finance followed a more uneven path. It climbed sharply in 2023, with the largest annual increase observed since 2013, then fell by $6.3 billion in 2024.

Mitigation finance remained the largest category. It accounted for nearly two thirds of total climate finance provided and mobilised for developing countries. That keeps the bulk of funding tied to emissions reduction, clean energy, and other mitigation priorities.

Adaptation finance also grew, but more slowly. It reached $33.6 billion in 2023 and $34.7 billion in 2024. Adaptation accounted for one quarter of total finance in both years, down from a peak of one third in 2020.

That matters for vulnerable economies. Adaptation finance supports resilience to floods, droughts, heat, water stress, food insecurity, and other climate impacts. Many of these risks already carry direct fiscal and economic costs.

Private Capital Gains Ground

Mobilised private finance reached $30.5 billion in 2024. That was the largest annual rise since 2016, with growth of $7.6 billion, or 33%, from 2023.

The OECD said the increase was driven mainly by multilateral development banks. Private finance was mobilised largely through direct investment in companies, guarantees, and syndicated loans.

For executives and investors, the trend points to a larger role for blended finance and public risk-sharing tools. These mechanisms remain central to climate investment in emerging markets, where project risk, currency exposure, and policy uncertainty can limit private capital flows.

Still, the private finance base remains narrow. The OECD noted that a limited number of large transactions can affect year-on-year totals. That makes scale important, but also raises questions about consistency, pipeline depth, and whether finance is reaching the countries with the greatest need.

Low-Income Countries Still Lag

Climate finance remained concentrated in middle-income countries. Support for low-income countries fell to $8.4 billion in 2023, then recovered only partly to $9.6 billion in 2024. That remained below the $11.1 billion peak recorded in 2022.

This distribution is a governance concern for global climate diplomacy. The countries least able to absorb climate shocks often face the hardest barriers to accessing finance. Many also have limited fiscal space and weaker capacity to take on debt.

Loans continued to dominate public climate finance overall. Yet grants played a larger role in low-income countries, where they accounted for around 65% of public climate finance over the 2016 to 2024 period.

The Glasgow Climate Pact called on developed countries to at least double adaptation finance from 2019 levels by 2025. OECD figures show that meeting that target would require adaptation finance to rise by more than $5 billion in 2025.

The Next Finance Test Is Larger

The $100 billion goal remains politically important, but it is no longer the main benchmark for the next decade.

At COP29, governments adopted a New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance for 2026 to 2035. The decision calls for scaling finance to developing countries from all sources to at least $1.3 trillion a year by 2035. It also sets a goal, with developed countries taking the lead, of at least $300 billion a year by 2035.

The OECD will continue tracking performance through 2025 and expects to publish a final report in 2027.

For boards, policymakers, and investors, the message is clear. Developed countries have now cleared the old threshold. The harder test is whether climate finance can become larger, more predictable, and better aligned with the needs of vulnerable economies.

Read the Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013-2024 here.