Developing nations need billions in climate funding. Here’s how it can be delivered

Despite repeated calls for more help, actual financing offered to date has come nowhere near what is needed, which some estimate to be as high as $1 trillion annually.

Demands from developing countries for richer nations to help them pay for the damage caused by climate change and fund the shift towards a low-carbon future look set to dominate the next round of global climate talks starting in Egypt on Sunday.

Despite repeated calls for more help, actual financing offered to date has come nowhere near the estimated $1 trillion-a-year needed.

Here are some of the ways the money can get to emerging markets.

State-backed development banks, which finance projects to further economic and social progress, have increased their focus on climate investments over the last year.

The world’s biggest multilateral development banks increased their climate-related financing 24% to $82 billion in 2021 versus 2020 levels. Nearly two-thirds of the money went to low and middle-income countries, the banks said in a recent report.

The 2021 figure, however, remains a long way short of the estimated finance needed by emerging markets, and this year’s summit will likely include discussions of reforming development banks to accelerate climate financing.

A report by the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock last year put the overall need at $1 trillion a year of public and private finance.

Set up in 2010 to disperse climate finance, the multibillion-dollar Green Climate Fund is one of the vehicles for handling the $100 billion-a-year pledged by rich nations to the poor.