Newly Updated “Climate Finance Files” tracks actual payments as COP31 opens in Antalya, Türkiye

WASHINGTON DC – Developed countries paid $60.4 billion in public climate finance to developing countries in 2024, about $41 billion less than the $101.6 billion the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports, according to an updated “Climate Finance Files” analysis released today by ONE Data.

The analysis is the first update to “The Climate Finance Files,” which ONE Data first published in 2023 to track climate finance disbursements rather than commitments. Data on actual payments is spread across separate databases. The 2023 edition found that $343 billion in climate finance commitments counted by the OECD from 2013 to 2021 had not been reported as disbursed or had little connection to climate.

“Countries carrying high debt and facing shrinking aid budgets and climate risk need to know how much money they can invest in responding to climate change. The official count doesn’t accurately tell them, but this new approach shines a light on how much money is being paid out and what it is being spent on,” David McNair, Managing Director for ONE Data, said.

The OECD reports that developed countries met the $100 billion-a-year goal, set in 2009, in 2022, 2023 and 2024. In 2024, countries set a new goal of at least $300 billion a year by 2035.

“Official data sources largely rely on climate finance commitments, overstating the amount of money that climate vulnerable countries receive,” said Jorge Rivera, Senior Director for Data and Product at ONE Data. “Money, not promises, is what builds green infrastructure and helps communities impacted by climate disasters.”   

ONE Data used statistical methods and AI tools to trace the life cycle of each project from commitment to disbursement, then checked those matches against development banks’ own payment data and the International Aid Transparency Initiative, providing a new perspective on where climate finance is flowing. The methodology is available HERE.

Other key findings include:

• Countries that have cut or plan to cut their foreign aid budgets provided 64% of bilateral climate finance in 2024.
• Countries, home to half of the people living in extreme poverty in developing countries received only 25% of climate finance payments.
• The World Bank paid 42% of the climate finance African countries received from 2021 to 2024. In 2026, the Bank dropped its 45% climate finance target.
• One Indian high-speed railway accounted for more climate finance (US$ 3.8bn) than all the climate finance recorded for off-grid solar and mini-grids in developing countries, combined (US$ 1.8bn).

The analysis leaves out about $35 billion of the OECD’s $136.7 billion headline figure for 2024. That portion consists of export credits and private finance mobilized by public money, which have no payment records.

The report calls for a Climate Finance Observatory that would link data on aid, development bank lending and domestic spending in one place. The full report is available HERE.

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ONE Data is an initiative from the ONE Campaign that transforms fragmented, inaccessible development data into trusted, actionable insights for policymakers, campaigners, journalists, and citizens. It organizes the world’s public finance data, democratizing access and collapsing the time from data to insight. For more information, sign up for the newsletter at https://insider.one.org/, or visit data.one.org.