UN climate chief urges scale-up in climate finance

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell has called for an urgent and substantial increase in global climate finance to address the escalating climate crisis. Speaking at a Brookings Institution virtual event on Thursday, Stiell emphasized that while recent progress in climate finance is notable, it falls significantly short of the necessary scale required to protect the global economy and vulnerable communities from worsening climate impacts.

Stiell pointed to the fact that over a trillion dollars was invested in climate action globally last year, a major leap from just a few hundred billion a decade ago. Additionally, developed countries provided and mobilized over $100bn in climate finance to developing nations in 2022, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates. However, he warned that despite these advances, much more is needed to meet the global climate challenge, especially as countries around the world face mounting damages from extreme weather events and economic disruptions linked to the climate crisis.

“We’ve seen hundreds of billions of dollars of damage to countries, rich and poor, this year alone,” Stiell remarked. “We simply can’t afford a world of clean energy haves and have-nots. In a two-speed global transition, pretty soon everyone loses.”

Stiell stressed that trillions of dollars more in investment are needed to enable all nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions and bolster their resilience to climate impacts. Without decisive action, he warned, economies will suffer more severely in the years to come. He urged the international community to seize the opportunity of the upcoming World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings, where multilateral development banks (MDBs) will play a critical role in driving the climate transition.

While welcoming recent moves by the World Bank to increase concessional lending for climate action, Stiell noted that incremental changes will not suffice. “On climate finance, we have a need for speed,” he said, emphasizing that developing countries must have access to more funds, fiscal space, and debt relief to enable effective climate action.

He called on the G20, as the largest shareholders of the MDBs, to properly fund these institutions and support reforms to the international financial system. Stiell highlighted Brazil’s G20 leadership, noting its efforts to bring together climate and finance ministers—a collaboration that he hopes will lead to more concrete outcomes.

Looking ahead to COP29 in Baku, Stiell emphasized that a new international climate finance goal must be established, one that aligns with the needs of developing countries. “COP29 must be the stand-and-deliver COP,” he said, underscoring that climate finance is central to saving the global economy and protecting billions of lives from rampaging climate impacts.

Stiell also stressed the importance of public finance, calling for more grant-based and concessional funding, and underscoring the need to leverage private finance to scale up climate investments. Additionally, he called for mechanisms to ensure that promised funds are delivered, more support for adaptation, and the effective operation of the Loss and Damage Fund, established at COP28.

“We must fund a new generation of national climate plans,” Stiell said, urging governments to convert pledges made at COP28 into real-world results, such as tripling renewable energy, doubling energy efficiency, and phasing out fossil fuels.

In closing, Stiell warned against isolationist tendencies in a time of global fractures. “If we go down this path, it will soon be game over in the world’s climate fight,” he said, urging leaders to recognize that climate finance is in every nation’s interest and that boulder climate action offers a pathway to stronger growth, more jobs, and better health for all.