Climate key to development cash

For decades, the international community has operated under the illusion that climate action and development are different pursuits, each with its own goals, institutions, and funding mechanisms. This approach has hindered progress on both agendas.

- Mahmoud Mohieldin

A cardboard Eiffel Tower highlights the fragility of the Paris Agreement at COP30, in Belem, Brazil.

(REUTERS)

The world leaders gathered in Belém, Brazil, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) must recognise this and begin transforming the fragmented, underperforming climate-finance system into an integrated framework that delivers on both climate and development objectives. As they embark on this process, it is worth considering the main takeaways from “Policy-Driven Climate and Development Finance: Strategies for Equitable Solutions”, the forthcoming volume of essays that I edited.

While making the global financial architecture more equitable and efficient is a long-term project, delegates at COP30 can take important steps forward. First, they must deliver a replicable and scalable model for climate finance that translates pledges into predictable flows, provides measurable results, and allows for country ownership. This is necessary to narrow the climate-finance gap, especially because developing countries will require between US$5.1-6.8 trillion through 2030 to meet their contributions, while their adaptation needs are 10-18 times greater than international public-finance flows.