Ambition is Not Action: It’s Time to Turn Climate Finance Into Climate Action

COP30 was supposed to be the moment ambition finally met accountability. Yet, after two weeks of negotiations in Belém, the summit ended with familiar applause and uncertainty. Despite the urgency of the climate crisis and the momentum of last year’s “Roadmap from Baku to Belém,” this year’s so-called “COP of truth,” coined by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, failed to deliver what the world needed most: a clear, enforceable plan to turn promises into implementation.

Climate finance is one of the foundations on which the Paris Agreement was built. Nonetheless, almost ten years after that historic accord, the world remains on the brink of a “moral failure” if global warming surpasses 1.5°C, as the UN Secretary-General recently warned. Renewable energy is expanding, but outdated policies, fossil-fuel subsidies, and the interests of corporations and wealthy investors who profit from fossil fuels continue to delay progress. The tools exist, but socio-political dynamics and economic constraints continue to prevent progress.

COP30 was the moment to correct that gap. Instead, it exposed three key problems that must be addressed if climate finance is to transition from rhetoric to results.

1. A Roadmap Without a Road

Last year, the Roadmap from Baku to Belém set an ambitious international climate-finance target: $1.3 trillion USD annually by 2035. Some say it’s possible. Some say it’s not. But COP30 provided no concrete strategy for how those funds will be deployed, managed, or held accountable.

Rather than clarifying how implementation would work, this year’s negotiations once again left implementation largely unspecified. Despite new pledges, COP30 offered no clear way to ensure follow-through or track funding to the most vulnerable. Without enforcement and clarity, the roadmap will become another slogan. One that is well-intentioned, but disconnected from real-world outcomes. The world cannot afford another year in which ambition is applauded in theory but left unrealized in practice.

2. The Need to Define “Developing Country”

Climate finance was built on a binary established in the 1992 UNFCCC, even though the treaty never defined what makes a country “developed” or “developing.” Instead, it relied on two lists—Annex I and Annex II, to stand in for these categories without explaining the criteria behind them. Annex I countries, seen as developed, were expected to lead the charge for emissions reductions, while the smaller Annex II group of wealthier OECD countries was responsible for providing climate finance. All non–Annex I Parties were treated as developing countries. While this may have worked in the past, it no longer reflects today’s realities.

Two of today’s largest greenhouse-gas emitters — China and India — still qualify as “developing nations” under this system. The UNFCCC has never formally defined what “developing country” means, and the Paris Agreement inherited the same ambiguity. As a result, major economies with vast industrial capacity continue to receive climate financing even as they expand fossil-fuel use and contribute significantly to the rise of global greenhouse emissions.

This is not about penalizing growth. It is about equity and accuracy. The climate-finance system cannot function if its foundational categories do not reflect our geopolitical and economic reality. Continuing to direct limited funds to countries that are both major emitters and major economies undermines the purpose of climate finance and places unnecessary strain on nations that genuinely lack the capacity to fund their own climate initiatives.

Revisiting how we classify developing nations is essential for progress to be made.

3. The Overreliance on Private Capital and the Myth That Markets Will Fix It

The Roadmap from Baku to Belém is structured around five pillars: Replenishing, Rebalancing, Rechanneling, Revamping, and Reshaping. The Roadmap’s call to rechannel global financial flows is built on the assumption that private finance can fill the massive funding gap. In theory, this promises speed, scale, and innovation. In practice, this idea ignores the reality we live in: private capital follows profit, not equity or justice.

To date, 78% of climate finance comes from public sources — mainly multilateral development banks — while only 22% comes from private actors such as corporations and commercial banks. And even within that small share, most private finance goes to wealthier, lower-risk countries, bypassing the communities that are most impacted by climate change.

“Rechanneling” assumes that investors will suddenly shift their behavior out of moral obligation. But the barriers are also structural. High risks, unstable currencies, and weak regulations cannot be fixed by the goodwill of investors. As Secretary-General Guterres said: “None of this can happen without funding that is predictable, accessible, and guaranteed.” Private finance can help scale renewables, but only when profit and low risk are guaranteed, making it an unstable foundation for climate action. Without increased public pressure to hold private finance sources accountable, money will continue flowing to profitable markets, like fossil fuels, instead of the places that need it most.

We cannot rely on private finance because investors follow profit, not public need, leaving the communities facing the worst climate impacts behind. Until global financial incentives change, climate action will remain underfunded and inequitable.

Where We Go From Here

COP30 delivered some gains, yet it still represented a missed opportunity. The world doesn’t need more aspirational targets; it needs real, actionable climate policy implementation. COP31 must become the benchmark for progress on three fronts:

• A detailed timeline and implementation plan for the $1.3 trillion USD finance goal for 2035
• A modernized and transparent classification of which countries qualify for climate-finance support
• A structural overhaul that reduces investment risk in developing countries would finally allow private capital to flow where it’s needed most — not just where profits are highest

The next twelve months will show us whether climate finance can become an engine of transformation or remain a collection of empty promises. The $1.3 trillion USD annual goal by 2035 is achievable. But possibility is not progress.

Progress requires honesty, courage, and a commitment to stop mistaking ambition for action. COP30 set the strategy. COP31 must deliver the results.