INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE FINANCE IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY

IN COOPERATION WITH VIENNA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION (VIDC)

Irene Horejs in conversation with Hans Peter Lankes and John Asafu-Adjaye

INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE FINANCE IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY
Is there any way forward for global climate action?

In November 2024, at the international Climate Conference COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, developed countries committed themselves to increase their climate finance contributions to developing countries to 300 bn USD per year in order to support their mitigation and adaptation efforts.

At the beginning of 2025, President Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement, called for renewed drilling for fossil fuels and cut US development finance by 90%. European countries also reduced their development budgets of which a substantial share went to finance climate relevant actions.

At the same time, climate scepticism is on the rise in the US and the EU and countries struggle to agree on their own mitigation measures. The world's temperature is rapidly rising to 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial level which has been the temperature target since Paris 2015. More severe storms, droughts, floods and heat waves are inflicting devastation on the most vulnerable communities which bear the least responsibility for the climate crisis. African countries recognise the need for climate action, but are struggling under high debt burdens, aid cuts, new taxes on their exports imposed by the US and the need to invest in their economic development to generate employment and social services for their young populations.

In the context of so much political uncertainty, rising nationalism and climate scepticism, are past commitments for climate finance and global climate action still realistic? Can there be any positive perspectives for the COP30 climate summit in Brazil in November 2025? Or will climate policy just be a further blow to relations between the EU and Africa?

Welcome and introduction:
Sybille Straubinger, Managing Director of the VIDC

Hans Peter Lankes, Managing Director at ODI Global (formerly Overseas Development Institute), Visiting Professor in Practice at LSE Grantham Institute and senior fellow at the LSE/Oxford International Growth Centre.

John Asafu-Adjaye, Resident Senior Fellow at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET)/research programme on agriculture and climate change

Moderator:
Irene Horejs, Former Director of DG ECHO and former EU Ambassador to Peru, Mali and Niger