WASHINGTON (November 23, 2018)–The Standing Committee on Finance, an expert body of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, released its third Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance, which covers finance flows in 2015 and 2016. The Assessment is produced by a team of technical experts, then reviewed and approved by developing and developed countries who are members of the Standing Committee.

Below is a statement from Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, Director of the Sustainable Finance Center, World Resources Institute:

“The Biennial Assessment arrives at a critical time as the world heads into crucial climate negotiations in December in Poland. Countries are rightly wondering about progress towards the goal of mobilizing $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries, due by 2020. This is a central pillar of the “grand bargain” at the heart of the Paris Agreement.

“The Biennial Assessment is one of the most authoritative expert analyses of climate finance, and one that carries the endorsement of governments. The latest issue of the Assessment shows that public climate finance from developed to developing countries reached $55 billion in 2016, a 30% increase over 2014 levels. When including private finance mobilized by public support, flows reached over $70 billion in 2016.

“If their funding continues to scale up at this rate, developed countries are well on track to meeting the $100 billion goal in 2020. But this is no time for complacency: adaptation support, in particular, needs urgent scaling up.”

Learn more about WRI's work on climate finance.