Urgent pleas for cash from poor nations most exposed to the kind of climate-related disasters that have marked this year risk meeting a sluggish response at Turkey’s COP31 talks as Western governments put national security and living costs first. Two years ago, rich countries agreed at UN climate talks they would triple climate funding for poorer countries to $300bn per year by 2035 versus a previous 2020 target. Also by 2035, financing from all public and private sources combined would be $1.3tn annually. The rich countries met their 2020 target two years late. Since then, climate action has slipped down the political agenda for Western governments as US President Donald Trump has withdrawn international funding, while wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have added to inflationary pressures and the need to spend on security. Vulnerable small island nations say the cash they need to repair damage and to guard against future climate-related crises is again arriving too slowly and their own budgets have shrunk. “Like many small island developing states, we remain in a perpetual climate disaster recovery mode,” Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale told the conference. “We cannot build resilience while our fiscal space erodes.” Even when money is available, technical hurdles set by lenders can stretch the administrative capacity of small states. For many developed nations, facing international and domestic unrest as citizens protest against the rising cost of living, their focus has narrowed. Britain, which has sought to be a leader in addressing climate change, said in July savings made from switching some climate finance contributions from grants to loans would be used to help fund a cap on domestic bus fares. Meanwhile, defence spending has climbed significantly. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated in April that world military expenditure reached $2.89tn in 2025, up 2.9% in real terms from 2024. Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said military defence ultimately was the smaller concern. “We are told there is no money, but as spending on war grows, the greatest security threat we face remains underfunded. I appeal to you: Find money for life, not death,” she said in her speech to the conference in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya. IMPLEMENTATION, NOT NEW TARGETSAs they respond to the contemporary mood, host country Turkey and lead negotiator Australia have emphasised making previous pledges work, rather than securing a new headline target at the conference, which continues until the end of next week. “COP31 must respond to the global moment and send a clear message to accelerate implementation,” Australia’s COP31 negotiating president Chris Bowen said. He also said finance must be “faster, simpler and fairer”. Analysis by previous COP host Brazil published earlier this week found that $137bn was mobilised in 2024, a slight increase on 2023, but that direct aid and future commitments to multilateral funds were lower. Current trends suggested provision would fall $840bn short of the $1.3tn goal, it said. “Geopolitical tensions, constrained fiscal space in many developing countries and the high cost of capital where it is most needed are among the obstacles,” the report said. By way of solutions, it urged measures such as risk-sharing and clearer links between national plans and budgets. Some smaller nations have taken novel steps to find cash and to spur richer nations to match it. The Solomon Islands pledged $400,000 from its own pocket on Thursday, saying it was determined to show leadership and calling on rich countries to do the same. The Bahamas committed $75mn to protect and restore its seagrass meadows, which store carbon, to try to persuade investors to fund verified carbon projects. UNCLOGGING THE SYSTEMBoth public and private funding provide climate finance grants, loans, aid and investment in measures ranging from renewable energy to flood defences. Multilateral development banks are a conduit for finance that leverages capital provided by shareholder countries to increase lending power and they say they are delivering. Their lending reached record levels in 2025, according to the European Investment Bank. But, they could do more, according to Washington-based think tank the Center for Global Development and recipients of the finance have said the development banks should make access easier. Addressing that, a group of multilateral funds told the COP31 talks they would rely more on one another’s assessments in co-financed operations rather than having to go through multiple overlapping processes. For private investors, the most obvious issue is the risk of investing in an instrument that does not guarantee returns. Given how unforthcoming the world’s richer governments have been, the private sector is ever more important. “Our clients see opportunities in the energy transition, but they need reliable power, predictable costs and confidence in customer demand before they invest,” HSBC Chief Sustainability Officer Julian Wentzel said. “COP31 needs to help create that confidence.”
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