Beyond Tripling: The Role of UNFCCC Climate Funds in Delivering the NCQG

Climate Finance Advisory Service

This policy brief analyses the NCQG commitment to at least triple annual outflows from UNFCCC climate funds by 2030 (from 2022 levels) and to significantly increase their share in delivering the USD 300 billion climate finance goal for 2035. It reviews past trends in the share of climate finance delivered through those funds, alongside total and individual fund outflows. It offers potential interpretations of the NCQG targets and their timeframes, and considers collective vs. individual fund approaches, the inclusion of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FrLD), and implications for adaptation finance. The brief examines institutional, policy, resource mobilisation and demand factors affecting each fund’s potential approaches towards increasing outflows while safeguarding qualitative objectives such as equity and direct access. It also assesses how these funds contribute to mobilising public and private finance, both directly and indirectly, towards the USD 1.3 trillion goal. Finally, it offers recommendations with a view to the Baku to Belem Roadmap and ensuring that the UNFCCC fund-related commitments in the NCQG decision are interpreted in a way that maximises their transformative potential.

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Bridging Gaps, Facing Limits: Opportunities and Constraints of Private Finance under the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for LDCs and SIDS.

Climate Finance and Advisory Service

Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change, facing threats posed both by slow-onset processes and extreme weather events. They bear disproportionate shares of climate risk relative to historic responsibility and have very limited resources and capacity to deal with the climate crisis…. Read more »

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Reframing transformational adaptation in the UNFCCC: lessons and pathways

IIED

This briefing examines the evolution of ‘transformational adaptation’ within the scientific community and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), highlighting its contentious reception among developing nations. The concept of transformational adaptation has evolved from incremental and intermediary adaptation practices. By the 2010s, scholarly publications recognised that incremental changes would be insufficient to address… Read more »

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Understanding barriers to women’s participation in the UN climate negotiations: perspectives from the least developed countries

IIED

Since 2008, women have accounted for approximately one in three delegates at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations. At the current rate of change, gender parity in heads of delegation, of whom only about 10% are women, will not be achieved in the foreseeable future. This research examines the underlying factors… Read more »

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