Providing finance to help developing countries undertake climate action is both a moral responsibility and a legal obligation for developed countries. This is rooted in the fact that they are responsible for the majority of cumulative emissions since industrialization began and generally have greater capacity to provide support. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries are obligated to provide financial resources to meet some of the costs incurred by developing countries in undertaking certain obligations under the convention as well as to assist particularly vulnerable developing countries in meeting the costs of climate adaptation.
Over the past decade, there have been several assessments of aggregate progress towards the goal, but until now, no data set has attempted to break down each country’s full public financial contribution. This technical note aims to fill this gap, increasing transparency and accountability around progress towards the $100 billion commitment by breaking down how much each developed country has contributed in public climate finance for developing countries between 2013 and 2018, the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available.