Multilateral development banks ( MDBs ) committed a total of US$136.6 billion in climate finance in 2024, comprised of US$85.1 billion to low- and middle-income countries and US$51.5 billion to high-income ones, according to a recent report.

Climate finance in low- and middle-income countries has increased by 14% from 2023 to 2024, while global climate finance across all MDB operations has grown by 10% year on year ( YoY ), finds the Joint Summary Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance, which records the climate finance commitments made by the 10 MDBs each year since 2012.

A majority of funds are disbursed to climate mitigation projects, of which US$58.8 billion are committed to low- and middle-income countries, while US$46.5 billion are committed to high-income countries.

Commitments to climate adaptation projects mainly focused on low- and middle-income countries with an amount of US$26.3 billion, representing a 6.5% increase YoY. High-income countries, on the other hand, recorded only US$5 billion in adaptation finance commitments.

The World Bank Group ( WBG ) was the largest climate financier for low- and middle-income countries, while the European Investment Bank ( EIB ) was the largest climate financier for high-income countries.

Apart from their own commitments, MDBs also played a key role in mobilizing climate finance from other public and private sources. This so-called co-finance amount in 2024 came to US$73.4 billion for low- and middle-income countries, and US$110.8 billion for high-income countries.

MDBs were also, the report mentions, advancing a digitalization project to increase the transparency and accessibility of their joint climate finance data, whose details will be presented at the United Nations annual climate conference ( COP30 ) in Belém, Brazil later in November.