Access to Climate Finance in Low and Middle-Income Countries: 14 Case Studies in the Transport Sector

This working paper provides a comprehensive analysis of climate finance for transport projects in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. By examining 839 transport projects and presenting 14 detailed case studies, the paper explores international climate finance sources—including climate funds, multilateral development banks, donor governments, and private investors—and their support for transport projects, from building all-weather roads to electric mobility and public transport. The case studies offer valuable insights into how LMICs access climate finance for low-carbon and resilient transport.

Key Findings:

• We found that a third of the transport projects that received climate finance involved building roads. Fewer public transport and electric vehicle projects accessed climate finance, and only 20 percent of projects explicitly aimed at improving resilience.
• The common barriers to accessing climate finance were inadequate policy frameworks, limited project preparation capacity, high upfront costs and risk perceptions, complex funding requirements, and difficulties in assessing projects’ broader socioeconomic benefits.
• Countries can address these roadblocks (see Figure below) by creating an enabling environment with sustainable policies and transport targets, attracting private investments with de-risking instruments, building capacity to design and implement bankable projects, and doing more to monitor and evaluate the impacts of transport measures.

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