BRUSSELS, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Low- and middle-income economies obtained 41.5 billion U.S. dollars of climate financing from seven of the world's largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) in 2019, a joint report released by the European Investment Bank (EIB) revealed on Thursday.
The report, "2019 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks' Climate Finance," showed that low- and middle-income economies secured 67 percent of the total 61.6 billion U.S. dollars climate financing from MDBs.
Out of the total, 76 percent was devoted to climate change mitigation investments that aim to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and slow down global warming, and 24 percent was invested in adaptation efforts to help countries build resilience to the mounting impacts of climate change, including worsening droughts and more extreme weather events, such as extreme flooding and rising sea levels.
"MDBs have a key role to play in ensuring a green recovery that is inclusive and aligned with the Paris Agreement. The report published today shows that our MDB family is on track to meet our commitments to scale up support for climate change mitigation and adaptation projects," said Emma Navarro, Vice President of the European Investment Bank.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant social and economic disruption, temporarily reducing global carbon emissions to 2006 levels. Countries now confront parallel threats of COVID-19 and climate change, as well as a unique opportunity to "build back better" by planning investments for more sustainable systems in place of the current carbon-intensive approach, said the report.
The report collected data from the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank Group, World Bank Group and for the first time the Islamic Development Bank, which joined the working group in 2017.
The report also summarized information on climate finance tracking from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), presented separately from the joint figures but not yet included in the MDBs' climate finance. The China-initiated bank's climate finance was estimated to be 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, said the report. Enditem
