BRUSSELS, Belgium / EuroWire.IO / – The European Union and its 27 member states provided €32.3 billion in public climate finance to developing countries in 2025. They also mobilised a further €9.3 billion in private finance to help those countries cut emissions and adapt to climate change. The Council of the EU published the figures on October 29. The data come ahead of the UN climate conference in Türkiye next month.
The public figure includes €4.3 billion from the EU budget, including the European Development Fund. The European Investment Bank contributed €2.7 billion. The total is calculated from commitments for bilateral finance and disbursements of multilateral finance reported for calendar year 2025. Grant-based finance accounted for 41% of the public contribution, according to the Council. The rest was provided through other financial instruments. The remaining public funds came largely from member states’ national budgets.
The €9.3 billion in private finance was mobilised through public interventions. These include guarantees, syndicated loans, direct investments in companies and credit lines. The figure does not include any of the public money used to attract the private funding. Together, the public and private contributions amount to €41.6 billion. The private share of the total was about 22%. The EU said the support helps developing countries combat climate change and adapt to its impacts.
Adaptation receives nearly half of public funds
About 48% of the public climate funding went to adaptation or to cross-cutting projects that combine adaptation with emissions cuts, according to data compiled by the European Commission. Adaptation spending helps countries cope with floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas. Developing countries have long called for a larger share of climate finance to go to adaptation. The remaining public funds supported efforts to reduce emissions.
Public climate finance rose from 2024, when the EU and its member states provided €31.7 billion, according to the European Commission. Private finance mobilised in 2024 stood at €11.0 billion, higher than the 2025 figure. Private mobilisation therefore fell by about €1.7 billion year on year. The combined total also fell slightly from €42.7 billion a year earlier. The EU had pledged stronger climate finance targets at the COP29 talks in Baku in 2024.
Figures prepared for COP31 in Antalya
The COP31 conference will take place in Antalya, Türkiye, from November 9 to 20, alongside the CMA8 meeting of parties to the Paris Agreement. At COP29 in Baku, countries agreed a new collective goal for developed nations to provide at least $300 billion a year by 2035. The agreement also called for efforts to scale up total finance for developing countries to $1.3 trillion a year.
The EU figures are expected to feature in negotiations on how to meet those commitments. Greenhouse gas concentrations reached a new record in 2025, the World Meteorological Organization said this week. Carbon dioxide levels rose to 426.8 parts per million. Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide also hit new highs. The EU and its member states publish their international climate finance figures each year before the UN climate talks.