France provided €7.2 billion in climate finance for developing countries in 2023, including €2.8 billion devoted to climate change adaptation. Consequently, for the third year running, France has far exceeded the €6-billion annual target over the period 2021-2025 set by President Macron in 2020. France is one of the main contributors of international climate finance and one of the few countries considered to be providing its fair share in the collective target of $100 billion a year until 2025.
In 2020, President Macron pledged to increase the French target for climate finance for developing countries to €6 billion a year over the period 2021-2025, a third of it dedicated to adaptation. France has systematically honoured this commitment since 2021, with €6.1 billion in climate finance provided in 2021 (including €2.2 billion for adaptation) and €7.6 billion in 2022 (including €2.6 billion for adaptation). Over the period 2020-2023, France therefore provided an average of €6.97 billion in climate finance a year, confirming a positive trajectory towards meeting the national target over the whole period.
These figures make France one of the main contributors of international climate finance. Within the European Union, France is the second-largest contributor and accounts for 31% of European climate finance provided in 2023. France is therefore considered to be one of the countries most clearly exceeding its “fair share” of the target set at COP15 in 2009, when developed countries collectively pledged to raise $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries until 2025.
Even though this global target was exceeded for the first time in 2022, with $115.9 billion counted by the OECD, it has been agreed that it will be reviewed during COP29, which will be held in Baku (Azerbaijan) from 11 to 22 November. Identifying a new climate finance target (called an NCQG – New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance) will be one of the major issues addressed at this COP. France is playing its full part in these discussions and will work to ensure this new target is ambitious and realistic, drawing on the progress made in achieving the $100-billion target and following on from the Paris Pact for People and the Planet. It calls for momentum to be maintained to release additional climate finance by continuing the efforts aimed at reforming the international financial architecture, by securing more contributions from a greater number of contributors and through a greater contribution from private finance, without which it will not be possible to achieve the scale required to tackle the challenge of climate change.
Mme Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for the Ecological Transition, Energy, the Climate and Risk Prevention, said: “The ecological transition requires all the world’s countries to play an active role and won’t happen without international solidarity to help developing countries reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change. As COP29 draws near, France is again demonstrating its national ambition and its driving role on the international stage, through its 2023 pledge of €7.2 billion, including €2.8 billion for adaptation. At COP29 in Baku, France and the European Union will do everything to ensure the new climate-finance target for developing countries is ambitious and fair. In particular we’d like all those countries with the financial capacity to contribute so as to increase the funding, whose purpose is to support decarbonization in developing countries, especially the most vulnerable ones, because such projects have positive repercussions for everyone. We must also mobilize all sources of finance, in accordance with the Paris Pact for People and the Planet. An agreement on this new climate-finance target will send a strong message for the new Nationally Determined Contributions expected in 2025, which will have to be as ambitious as possible.”
Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, said: “As we prepare to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, France is once again showing its commitment to supporting developing countries in implementing their energy-transition and climate-change-adaptation strategies. At COP29 in Baku, France and the European Union will play a fully active role to secure a more ambitious, more effective and fairer target so that no country has to choose between fighting poverty and protecting the planet. To address this challenge, we’ll need everyone to make an effort, and we’ll need to draw on all innovative sources and instruments. France commits ambitiously to achieving its targets in terms of the climate and supporting its partners, in every region of the world, who make this challenge a priority focus of their action. The French Development Agency [AFD], a pioneer in climate finance, was also the first development bank to commit to being 100% aligned with the Paris Agreement. The AFD is also committed to an alignment with the Kunming-Montreal agreement on biodiversity, thus promoting the need to combat the climate and biodiversity crises with the same ambition.”
Antoine Armand, Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry, said: “These figures testify to France’s ongoing commitment to the ecological transition and the fight against climate change. At COP29, France will play a fully active role in negotiations on the future climate-finance target. Building on the work started in June 2023 at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, France is championing a reform of the international financial architecture that will make it more effective and inclusive. We must also do better collectively to mobilize all the funding sources and instruments and bring the private sector along more in a partnership approach, which is essential for achieving our climate targets. This approach must begin at national level. That’s the whole purpose of our multi annual strategy for funding the ecological transition, based on the effective, balanced mobilization of all stakeholders, thanks to a range of tools for raising both public and private finance.”