Multilateral development banks collectively claim $437 billion in climate finance investments between 2021 and 2024. But $71 billion remains untraceable to projects. In this blog, Ella Remande-Guyard explains why this transparency shortfall matters, and how our updated MDB climate finance dataset can help to understand exactly where climate finance is being directed.
Multilateral development banks (MDBs) play a central role in the provision of climate finance for emerging and developing economies, yet questions remain about where their billions are going and how effectively they are being used. Publish What You Fund is today launching a new report and accompanying dataset, Behind the Billions: tracking the missing pieces of MDB climate finance data. The dataset is the first cross-MDB repository compiling all publicly available, project-level climate finance data disclosed by MDBs between 2021 and 2023.
In this update, Ryan Anderton highlights the changing landscape of DFI climate finance, shares insights from the 2025 DFI Transparency Index, and outlines his hopes for future progress.
Multilateral climate funds play a crucial role in channelling significant portions of climate finance and will be key in efforts to meet the new $300 billion goal. But what do we know about how this climate finance is deployed, who receives it and the impact it’s having? To gain an insight into the transparency of these funds we have investigated the four largest multilateral climate funds: the Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility, Climate Investment Funds, and Adaptation Fund.
Development finance institutions (DFIs) are increasingly pivotal in the climate finance landscape. As they channel more resources to climate finance, and prepare for a new global goal for low- and middle-income countries, Ryan Anderton investigates what exactly we know about current DFI climate investments. In short, he finds a messy picture. Enhanced transparency is crucial if we want to ensure that climate finance is valid, accountable and, most importantly, effective.
Publish What You Fund has been looking into international climate finance and how this can be tracked at the national level. Alex Tilley presents research using aid transparency data to see how finance provided so far measures up against climate change adaptation needs identified by Kenya. This is a preview of a larger research project we are currently fundraising for.
