Today there are at least 81 active climate funds and it is unclear how much they commit and disburse, to whom, for what purpose, and with which impact. Given the urgency of scaling up climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in emerging markets, rationalizing and redefining the current messy climate aid architecture is a crucial step for the development community to take.
At least 94 climate funds have been established since 1991. The Global Environment Facility was the first in 1991 and the most recent is the Climate Finance Partnership Fund. Thirteen of these 94 climate funds have “disappeared” due to formal termination and/or lack of recent information or evidence of an active website. This leaves an estimated 81 climate funds active today.
According to a recent consolidation of available data, the multiplication of climate funds peaked during the 2006-2014 period, and the trend picked up again in 2021-22. Of the 81 active funds, 62 are multilateral funds — with 50 housed in multilateral development banks, bilateral agencies, or in United Nations agencies, while the remaining 12 are standalone — and 11 are bilateral funds (eight are housed in bilateral aid agencies with the remaining three standalone). In total, 73 of these funds are partially or entirely financed by public monies. The remaining eight are private.