New Climate-financing Pledges at IMF talks closer to $100 bln/yr

The world's rich countries most likely will be able to reach the goal of providing $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries combat and adapt to climate change, as the result of increased pledges made in Lima, key ministers said on Friday.

The World Bank and other international banks made billions of dollars of new pledges on Friday, on top of promises that have been made by individual countries.

"This bodes well for meeting the goal of $100 billion," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a news conference after a session at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Lima.

A report released on Wednesday showed that the rich countries had already provided an estimated $62 billion of finance in 2014, and the new promises will help get to the goal, set in 2010, of $100 billion a year by 2020.

"We are certain that we will reach the $100 billion by 2020," said Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, environment minister of Peru, which is hosting the IMF meetings.

A French government spokesman said afterwards that Friday's pledges by the international institutions totaled an extra $15 billion a year.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said achieving the 2020 target was a key ingredient for a new global climate change deal in Paris later this year.

The World Bank announced that it could increase its climate funding by one-third to 28 percent of its operations from 21 percent now, meaning an increase to $16 billion a year from $10.3 billion. This could engender further funds in projects that are co-financed, it said.

The European Investment Bank said it would increase the proportion of its lending in support of climate-related investment in developing countries from 25 percent to 35 percent.

The EIB says it is the largest multilateral lender for climate-related projects. It said that in 2014 it provided $25.4 billion in loans for climate change mitigation or adaptation across Europe and around the world.

Oxfam welcomed the new pledges but said they were insufficient.

"Ministers failed to address the elephant in the room: only a tiny fraction of climate funds are reaching the poorest countries to help them adapt to climate change," Oxfam climate change policy expert Isabel Kreisler said in a statement.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer)