The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in a joint report with the International Organisation of La Francophonie through the Institute of La Francophonie for Sustainable Development, reviewed how developing countries access international climate and biodiversity finance and concluded that rising global funding has not translated into easy country-level access. The report says access is constrained by structural capacity limits, fragmented donor systems and allocation patterns that often reflect recipient capacity, income and donor relationships more than vulnerability, particularly for least developed and low-income countries, small island developing states, fragile contexts and francophone countries. The report says total official development finance from Development Assistance Committee members and multilateral institutions reached USD 371.2 billion in 2023, with USD 139.7 billion targeting climate and USD 27.7 billion biodiversity, but dedicated vertical climate and environmental funds represented only 3.4% of climate finance and 7% of biodiversity finance. Bilateral donors and multilateral development banks still provide most support, while more providers, more fragmented delivery and longer disbursement lags raise transaction costs and slow implementation. The analysis also found that bilateral climate and biodiversity allocations track strategic, economic and historical ties as well as governance and income, while multilateral flows tend to favor countries with stronger performance and debt-carrying capacity, leaving fragile countries underfunded and adaptation finance below what highly exposed countries require. The report sets out a joint agenda for developing countries and donors. For countries, it points to stronger policy-aligned institutions, integrated strategies, public financial management, finance tracking and project capacity. For donors, it highlights the need to give greater weight to climate and biodiversity vulnerability in allocation frameworks, calibrate co-financing and procurement rules to country conditions, work more through country systems and improve harmonisation, including through government-led country platforms.
OECD2026-07-10
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and International Organisation of La Francophonie publish report finding structural and donor barriers to climate and biodiversity finance access
The OECD and the International Organisation of La Francophonie published a report finding that developing countries still face major barriers in accessing climate and biodiversity finance despite rising overall funding. It says dedicated climate and environmental funds remain a small share of total flows, while allocations are driven more by donor interests, recipient capacity and debt-carrying ability than by vulnerability. The report calls for stronger country systems and donor reforms on allocation, co-financing, procurement and co-ordination.