Deliver Climate Finance

Climate finance is the money needed to build a liveable climate for everyone, everywhere. It funds three things: cutting emissions by upgrading our energy systems to safe, affordable, and renewable energy like sun and wind; helping communities adapt to a heating planet, from stronger flood defences to drought-resilient farming; and repairing loss and damage already done, compensating communities for the climate impacts they're living through right now.

But it's not just about the money itself. It's about who pays it, who controls it, and who it actually reaches. Climate finance needs justice at its core: local communities meaningfully involved in decisions, and those most responsible for the crisis paying their share.

$1 trillion a year. That's what the investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency needs to reach by 2030 to keep global heating within the 1.5°C limit set by the Paris Agreement, alongside adapting our infrastructure to stronger storms, rising seas, and disrupted food and water supplies. On top of that, countries also need to invest in their own energy transition at home - so the full bill, external funding plus domestic investment combined, is even bigger. But that $1 trillion from wealthier nations is the critical piece, since it has to come from those most responsible for the crisis, not from the countries least responsible for it.

It's not just about the amount, though - it needs to be good quality funding: grants, not loans with high interest rates that trap struggling countries in debt; transparent, accountable agreements people can actually scrutinize; and local leadership, so funding decisions reflect what communities need, not what the financier wants.

Those who caused the crisis and are still profiting from it - wealthy countries and fossil fuel companies. It's the founding principle of international climate law: the countries that industrialized first, burning the most fossil fuels for the longest, bear the greatest responsibility. Fossil fuel companies knew the climate damage they were causing since decades ago and funded campaigns to hide it, while wealthy nations built their economies on cheap coal, oil and gas.

$1 trillion a year sounds like a lot - and it is - but the money already exists, just in the wrong hands. The world's 65 biggest banks poured $906 billion into fossil fuels in 2025 alone, part of $8.7 trillion channelled into oil, gas and coal since the Paris Agreement. Governments still hand fossil fuel companies $725 billion a year in direct subsidies.

Meanwhile the profits keep rolling in - often from the very instability the crisis creates. In Q2 2026, as the Iran conflict sent oil prices soaring, Shell posted $9.84 billion, BP made $5.73 billion, and Exxon and Chevron together netted over $26 billion - more than $48 billion from just four companies in three months, more than the entire yearly income of over 100 countries. Widen it to eight oil majors and profits top $93 billion for the quarter - the same summer Europe suffered its worst heatwave on record.

Those profiting most from the chaos have both the responsibility and the resources to fund the way out - not ordinary people already paying through higher bills and climate disasters they didn't cause.