Climate financing by the world's largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) in developing countries and emerging economies rose to an all-time high of $43.1billion in 2018.
This represents an increase of more than 22 per cent from the previous year, where climate finance totalled $35.2billion.
This is according to a release by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and copied to the Ghana News Agency, indicating the increased funding helped developing countries cut emissions and addressed climate risks.
The latest MDB climate finance figures are detailed in the 2018 Joint Report on MDB's Climate Change, which combines data from the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDBG) and the World Bank Group (WBG).
These banks account for the vast majority of multilateral development finance globally.
The 2018 report also summarises information on climate finance from the Islamic Development Bank (IsBD), which joined the MDB climate finance tracking groups in October 2017.
The report shows that $30.2billion, or 70 per cent of the total financing for 2018, was devoted to climate change mitigation investments that aimed to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and slow down global warming.
The remaining $12.9billion, or 30 per cent, was invested in adaptation efforts to help address mounting impacts of climate change, including worsening droughts and more extreme weather events from extreme flooding to rising sea levels.
Since 2011, when the six MDBs initiated joint reporting, they have committed nearly $237billion in climate finance for developing and emerging economies.
Climate funds channelled to these countries through MDBs, such as the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund, the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), the European Union's funds for Climate Action, and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), played an important role in boosting MDB climate financing.
In addition to the $43.1billion of MDB finance in 2018, MDBs reports another $68.1billion in net climate co-finance – investments from the public and private sector - adding up to total climate finance for the year of $111.2billion.
Mr Anthony Nyong, Director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the AfDB said "In 2018, the African Development Bank achieved parity between adaptation and mitigation finance for the first time. While adaptation finance from MDBs increased in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2018 compared to 2017, a lot more needs to be done globally to close the huge adaptation financing gap in Africa, estimated between $7-14billion per year by 2020."
The regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South and East Asia were the top three to invest MDB climate finance.
MDBs' provision of climate finance helps to ensure global financial flows are consistent with development with low greenhouse gas emissions and are resilient to climate change, in line with the Paris Agreement's aim to limit the increase in global temperatures to well below 2°C, pursuing efforts for 1.5°C.