Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Climate change aid up to USD 22.9 billion in 2010, says OECD’s Gurría

06/12/2011- New data show that the member countries of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) allocated up to USD 22.9 billion, or 15% of total official development assistance (ODA), to climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries in 2010. With the latest round of negotiations on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change now underway in Durban, South Africa, governments are discussing how to scale up, deliver and better direct international public climate finance.
“Measurement of climate-related development aid by the OECD is an important contribution to the tracking of climate financing”, said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría.  “We have been tracking aid in support of mitigation since 1998. This is the first time we are also reporting on support for adaptation to have a more complete picture of climate change related aid. Going forward, we urge donors to step up bringing in both mitigation and adaptation considerations into their development policies”.
One-third of the estimated climate-change-related aid in 2010 went to support adaptation (USD 9.3 billion) while two-thirds was for mitigation (USD 17.6 billion, up 69% from 2009). These estimates reflect aid activities in which climate change mitigation or adaptation was either the principal or a significant objective.  About 60% of the total climate-related aid had mitigation or adaptation as the principal objective.
In certain cases, funds can be tagged as both mitigation and adaptation-related, so it is important to avoid double-counting. Of the total USD 22.9 billion in finance, an estimated USD 4 billion supported both mitigation and adaptation objectives.
All OECD aid data are publicly available, bringing transparency and accountability to what countries and multilateral institutions are doing in this area.

Aid to climate change adaptation and mitigation 2010

Recent trends in aid related to mitigation (2006 – 2010)

Source: OECD Development Assistance Committee – CRS, Rio Markers series

 The OECD has been working on climate change economics and policy since the late 1980s to identify and implement least-cost policy responses. Besides tracking climate-related aid, the OECD is urging countries to reform domestic policies to support climate action.  It is also advising governments on how to design and use innovative financial instruments – such as green bonds – to attract new sources of capital, including from pension funds and other institutional investors. The OECD has also recently launched the climate change chapter of the Environmental Outlook to 2050 and is implementing its Green Growth Strategy.

For more information on OECD work on development assistance and climate change (the Rio Markers) visit www.oecd.org/dac/stats/rioconventions, where detailed, final, project-by-project data will be available soon.

For more information on OECD work on climate change finance, see the climate change finance flyer; or visit: www.oecd.org/env/cc/financing and www.oecd.org/cop17

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