That’s Not New Money: Assessing how much public finance has been “new and additional” to support for development
Most of the public climate finance reported by rich countries is taken directly from development aid budgets, despite long-standing commitments to provide new money, finds the latest report from CARE.
In 2009 developed countries committed to supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation activities in developing countries. It was agreed that they would provide scaled-up, new and additional finance, reaching USD 100 billion a year in 2020.
THAT’S NOT NEW MONEY: FULL REPORT
Rich countries have admitted that they missed this target, but as we document in this research, they also failed to ensure that climate finance was “new and additional” to their support for development.
In fact, most of the public climate finance reported by rich countries is taken directly from development aid budgets. This means less support for health, education, women’s rights, poverty alleviation, and progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
By assessing the most up-to-date data reported to the UNFCCC, only 6 per cent of the climate finance provided from 2011 to 2018 is seen to be new and additional to rich countries’ official development assistance commitments.
Even under a weaker definition of additionality, 55 per cent of the global North’s public climate finance is development finance being diverted towards climate change action.