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📝 New article on Our World in Data: How much development aid is spent on climate change? For a long time, we didn’t have good data to answer this basic question.

26/10/26, 4:02 pm8 reposts34 likes

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One benchmark: the OECD counted $115.9bn in climate finance from developed to developing countries in 2022, the first year the $100bn-a-year goal agreed in 2009 was met, two years after its 2020 target date (OECD, May 2024).

Our World in Data

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But using tags from the RioMarkers database, we’ve constructed a dataset on how much aid is spent on climate change, and what that funding is used for. The headline result is that, in 2024, around one-fifth of development aid was climate-related.

Our World in Data

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For allocable bilateral aid — that is, aid given from one country to another for specific projects — the share was one-third. Some of that aid is given to climate mitigation projects, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Our World in Data

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Some is given to adaptation: ways of dealing with the impacts of climate change. And just as much is given to projects that do both. Whether climate-related aid is in conflict or crowds out other aid efforts is hard to untangle.

Our World in Data

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When we look at individual examples, many look like traditional aid projects, with a subtle link to climate efforts. Take the building of a hospital in Tanzania; its main objective is to provide healthcare and save lives.