Ms Somaya Abdoun of Sudan, a climate finance negotiator for the Least Developed Countries Group in the UNFCCC, shared her thoughts on progress in the negotiations, mid-way through COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Ms Abdoun discusses the Group’s concern that too much of current climate finance is in the form of loans which lead to increase indebtedness on the part of borrowers: when the New Collective Quantitative Goal on climate finance is agreed by Parties (by 2024, to take effect from 2025), the LDC Group would like to see a substantial target for grant-based support within it. The Goal should be based on developing countries’ defined needs; and accessibility to climate finance should reach to the local, community level.

Video recording and editing: Pat Hinton, CASA. Image: Sudan, courtesy UNAMID