COP29: the overdue bill of climate finance

Climate finance is about supporting climate vulnerable countries to adapt to the impact of climate breakdown, such as floods, droughts and wildfires. It also provides them with the support they need to invest in clean energy. The estimated cost of addressing the climate crisis for climate vulnerable countries is between $1tn and $10tn a year.

Currently, climate vulnerable countries pay more in debt repayments than they receive in development aid and climate finance. This debt makes it more difficult to invest in clean energy and other measures to protect communities from the impacts of climate breakdown such as flood and storm defences. This traps countries in polluting fossil fuel production and exacerbates climate vulnerability. All of this means that climate finance is critical for communities in poverty who contribute the least to the climate crisis, but who are most impacted by it.

What will climate finance do for the climate vulnerable?

Climate vulnerable countries went into COP29 calling for the desperately needed $1.3tn a year to transition to cleaner economies and protect their populations from climate change. After two weeks of intense negotiations, COP29 launched the new global target which will see higher income countries ‘take the lead’ in raising $300bn a year for lower income countries by 2035. This is significantly under the amount needed.

While this might look like a tripling of the previous goal, it’s actually a lot less ambitious than that. For a start, we are all feeling the impact of inflation and seeing our money not go as far as it once did, and the same applies to climate finance. Also, there has been talk that a lot of this money could come in the form of loans, which would risk pushing countries further into debt and slow the transition towards a green economy.

Climate finance could be a significant part of creating resilience to climate breakdown and investing in local communities, but at the moment the pot is simply too small and too difficult to access.

From Baku to Belém: what’s next?

It’s important to remember that as soon as COP29 ended we set off on the road to COP30. The next climate conference will be held in the rainforest city of Belém in Brazil in November 2025. Between now and then, there is a lot to keep an eye on.

At the end of COP29, parties agreed to include the Baku to Belém Roadmap to $1.3tn which calls for all nations to work together to scale up climate financing to $1.3tn by 2035. While this addition isn’t as binding as the $300bn goal, it allows for continued pressure on governments to find a route to delivering climate finance.

Also, in February 2025, nations are due to launch new national climate commitments, which means that COP30 will be a key moment for nations to ramp up ambition to cut carbon emissions globally. It was encouraging to see the UK government announcing a new climate target at the beginning of COP29. It was, however, very disappointing to see the reference to the ‘transition away from fossil fuels’ (a key outcome of the previous COP) missing from the final COP29 text. Tackling the climate crisis must mean moving away from polluting fossil fuels, towards a fairer, greener economy.

While we continue to pray for and work towards a fairer global response to the climate crisis, Tearfund is working with thousands of communities who are already using climate-smart agriculture, self-help groups and other innovative ways to build resilience to climate change. You can find hope for our planet by reading Dorothee’s story here.

As we look to COP30, we call on leaders to put communities living in poverty at the heart of tackling the climate crisis. Join us in praying.