As calls grow louder for wealthy countries to pony up more money for climate finance, a look under the hood of existing funds reveals a disturbing trend: The most vulnerable countries are also the least likely to get the financing they need to protect themselves from worsening droughts and floods.
A big piece of the blame lies with donors, who have created a labyrinth of disparate climate financing mechanisms that are hard for low-income nations to access. That’s according to new research from the Center for Global Development, which we are reporting on here first.
Just 5.37% of the $50 billion that donors have put into climate funds administered by the World Bank have gone to the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations, including Niger and Chad. Overall, only 13.1% of the climate funds’ cash goes to low-income countries.