The federal government is significantly reducing international funding for climate protection

The federal government provides fewer resources internationally for climate protection. Are the private commitments and more loans enough to achieve the goals?

Climate protection: Less money for international projects. Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa

Berlin. The federal government has significantly reduced international climate financing from budget funds for 2025 and has therefore missed previous commitments. As the development and environment ministries announced on Tuesday, last year 4.7 billion euros were made available from the federal budget for climate protection and adaptation in developing and emerging countries. In 2024 it was still 6.1 billion euros. This corresponds to a decrease of almost 23 percent.

The previous governments under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had internationally promised to increase climate financing from budget funds to at least six billion euros annually by 2025.

The decline in government subsidies was said to have been partially offset by an increase in mobilized loans and private investments, which rose to 6.1 billion euros. Overall, the German contribution amounted to around 10.8 billion euros, after around 11.6 billion euros in the previous year.

The government therefore spoke of an overall decrease in contributions only slightly. The main difference, however, is that budget funds are grants, while mobilized funds are largely repayable loans.

“In times of declining public budgets, we are increasingly – and successfully – relying on leverage in the capital market and private investments,” explained Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan. Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (both SPD) added that they wanted to further expand the toolbox for climate-friendly investments. The mobilized funds are raised on the capital market by the development bank KfW and given out as loans for projects such as solar and wind farms in the Global South.

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