Developed countries failed to meet the $100 billion climate finance goal in 2020 – the deadline for the promise made 13 years ago. They claim that climate finance provided and mobilised reached $83.3 billion in 2020 ($13.1 billion of which was mobilised private finance). But Oxfam estimates the value of climate finance provided was only around a third of that reported ($21–24.5 billion).

Immediate action is needed to restore trust in the $100 billion goal and ensure that the provision of climate finance is fair and robust. For too long, most developed countries have persisted in counting the wrong things in the wrong way. There are too many loans, too much debt, too few grants, too little for adaptation, and too much dishonest and misleading accounting.

This brief sets out recommendations for action at COP27 and beyond to rectify these issues, restore trust in climate finance and stop the world’s poorest climate-vulnerable countries and communities being short-changed of the climate finance they urgently need and are entitled to.