Brazil puts COP31 climate finance gap at $840 billion

Brazil, the previous COP host, projects that climate finance will fall $840 billion short of the $1.3 trillion annual goal, according to an analysis reported by ESG News at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey.

Rich countries agreed two years ago to triple climate finance for poorer nations to $300 billion a year by 2035. They met their previous 2020 target two years late. Brazil's analysis found climate finance mobilized in 2024 came to $137 billion, a slight rise, though direct aid fell. U.S. President Donald Trump has since withdrawn international funding, and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have added to inflation, ESG News reported.

For allocators underwriting transition finance, COP31 adds no new public money. Turkey, the host, and Australia, the lead negotiator, are focusing on making existing pledges work rather than setting a new target. Brazil's report urged risk-sharing and clearer links between national plans and budgets, meaning the leverage available to private capital will come from structuring existing pledges rather than from a bigger headline number.

Small island states are pressing rich countries for faster climate finance. “Like many small island developing states, we remain in a perpetual climate disaster recovery mode,” said Matthew Wale, Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands. “We cannot build resilience while our fiscal space erodes.” The Solomon Islands pledged $400,000 on Thursday and urged rich countries to match it.

Hilda Heine, President of the Marshall Islands, put the shortfall against military budgets. “We are told there is no money, but as spending on war grows, the greatest security threat we face remains underfunded,” she said. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated world military spending at $2.89 trillion in 2025.