UN report: Africa drew 49% of multilateral climate-fund flows

Wednesday 4th November 2026

By inAfrika Newsroom

Africa accounted for 49% of climate finance flowing from developed to developing countries through United Nations climate-convention funds and other multilateral climate funds in 2023–2024, a UN assessment says.

The finding appears in the Standing Committee on Finance’s Seventh Biennial Assessment summary, formally issued on 3 November 2026 ahead of the COP31 climate conference in Antalya. The document examines finance through 2024, rather than spending in 2026.

Asia’s share of those climate-fund flows was 22%. Africa’s share differed across other channels: it received 30% of bilateral climate finance, 25% of multilateral development-bank finance and 26% of private finance mobilised by public institutions.

These percentages describe separate financing channels. They do not mean Africa received 49% of all climate finance, and the report cautions that estimates for some channels cannot be added together.

The Green Climate Fund is among the funds covered. Tanzania’s National Environment Management Council has since gained GCF accreditation, a route to submitting proposals rather than an award of project finance.

Globally, tracked climate finance averaged $1.9 trillion a year in 2023–2024, up 32% compared with 2021–2022. The total combines domestic and international investment from public and private sources; it is not a measure of developed countries’ international climate-finance obligations.

Adaptation finance, which supports responses to climate impacts, averaged $63 billion a year. Public sources supplied $57 billion of that amount, while the report identifies continuing gaps in tracking private adaptation investment.

The assessment draws on country submissions and data from organisations including the OECD and Climate Policy Initiative. Some country reporting for 2023–2024 was preliminary and incomplete when the assessment was prepared, and financing sources use different definitions and measurement methods.

The committee also found that complex applications, lengthy approvals, limited institutional capacity and high transaction costs continued to restrict access to finance. Systematic data on disbursements remained scarce, limiting comparisons between approved funding and money reaching projects.

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