Combatting the climate crisis requires $3 trillion in new capital each year through 2050, according to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
This, she said, “can be leveraged to support pathways to sustainable and inclusive growth, including for countries that have historically received less investment,” according to Reuters.
Speaking recently in Belem, Brazil, Yellen called the transition to a low-carbon economy the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.
“Neglecting to address climate change and the loss of nature and biodiversity is not just bad environmental policy. It is bad economic policy,” Yellen added.
This statement follows a recent meeting of G20 finance leaders in Rio De Janeiro.
In May, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published data outlining that developed countries provided and mobilised $115.9 billion in climate finance for developing countries in 2022, meeting the climate finance goal two years late.
Since then, this figure has been questioned, including by Oxfam, which estimated that the “true value” of climate finance provided in 2022 is “only between $28 billion and $35 billion,” with “at most” $15 billion earmarked for adaptation.