Paris, December 6, 2011 -New data show that the member countries of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) allocated up to USD 22.9 billion, or 15% of total official development assistance (ODA), to climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries in 2010.

With the latest round of negotiations on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change now underway in Durban, South Africa, governments are discussing how to scale up, deliver and better direct international public climate finance.

"Measurement of climate-related development aid by the OECD is an important contribution to the tracking of climate financing", said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. 

"We have been tracking aid in support of mitigation since 1998. This is the first time we are also reporting on support for adaptation to have a more complete picture of climate change related aid. Going forward, we urge donors to step up bringing in both mitigation and adaptation considerations into their development policies".

One-third of the estimated climate-change-related aid in 2010 went to support adaptation (USD 9.3 billion) while two-thirds was for mitigation (USD 17.6 billion, up 69% from 2009).

These estimates reflect aid activities in which climate change mitigation or adaptation was either the principal or a significant objective.  About 60% of the total climate-related aid had mitigation or adaptation as the principal objective.

In certain cases, funds can be tagged as both mitigation and adaptation-related, so it is important to avoid double-counting. Of the total USD 22.9 billion in finance, an estimated USD 4 billion supported both mitigation and adaptation objectives. 

Several OECD donor countries have announced new climate related aid financing at the UN Climate Summit underway in Durban South Africa this week. Canada's Environment Minister Peter Kent announced the Government of Canada is contributing $1.2 billion to support international efforts to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate.

The U.K. government said it paid out two-thirds of its 1.5 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) of "fast- start" finance for climate protection and adaptation by developing nations promised for 2010 to 2012.

M ore information on OECD development assistance and climate change (the Rio Markers) is available here, where detailed, final, project-by-project data will be available soon.