By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Wealthy countries likely missed a goal to contribute $100 billion last year to helping developing nations deal with climate change, according to the head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), after increasing funding by less than 2% in 2019.

As world leaders attempt to reduce global warming and accelerate emissions, rich countries will be under increasing pressure to contribute more money to the COP26 climate summit.

Paris-based OECD released an update about climate finance. It stated that in 2019, donor governments had contributed $79.6 trillion to the global economy, compared to $78.3 Billion for 2018.

The OECD, a Paris-based organization that monitors climate finance said last year’s donor governments contributed $79.6 billion to help poorer countries meet their 2020 target of contributing $100 billion to climate finance.

Governments around the globe took the decision to redirect funding in order to support their local economies after the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. This raised concerns about climate financing contributions being cut that year.

Mathias Cormann from the OECD said that while data to verify climate finance for 2020 won’t be available until next year, it was clear that this target will still be met. He also called 2019’s increase “disappointing”.

Antonio Guterres, U.N. Secretary General, stated this week that the COP26 negotiations could fail because of mistrust among rich and poor countries – tensions stoked in part by the non-fulfilled climate finance promise.

According to the OECD, most 2019 funding went towards reducing emissions in developing countries while climate adaptation received only 25%.

These contributions comprise loans, grants and private investments that public agencies helped mobilize.

Without the support of wealthy nations, countries in developing regions say that they are unable to invest large amounts to reduce their emissions and strengthen their defenses against storms, floodings, rising seas.

This week, the EU committed additional climate funds to developing countries and called on the United States for more.

By 2024, the US will have doubled its public climate finance as compared with average levels under President Obama. Campaigners, experts and others are asking the world’s largest economy to be more.